Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer for 1965

The venereal diseases continue to present a serious problem in spite of modern methods of diagnosis and treatment and improved application of epidemiological methods of control.In the Report for 1964 it was noted that the increase was world-wide and, although in some respects it has been less marked in this country than in many others, the figures gave no justification for complac- ency.Reports from the clinics of England and Wales for 1965 indicate that these misgivings were well founded.Although gonorrhoea has shown a slight decline, infectious syphilis which should be easier to control has shown a disquieting increase.Syphilis In 1964 the numbers of cases of infectious syphilis, that is syphilis in the primary, secondary and early latent stages, was 1,738, comprising 1,422 * Ministry of Health (1965)."On The State of Public Health, the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health for the year 1965", p.75, and Appendix C, p.253.H.M.S.O., London.cases in males and 316 in females, an increase of 25 per cent.over the preceding year.In 1965 the total number of cases was 2,118, of which 1,734 were in males and 384 in females.The increase over 1964 amounts to 22 per cent.and the ratio of males to females was 4 5 to 1, as in the two preceding years.If cases of early latent syphilis are excluded be- cause the estimate of duration of infection and of infectiousness is likely to be less accurate in these cases, there remain 1,743 cases of primary and secondary syphilis in 1965, comprising 1,469 in males and 274 in females, as compared with 1,172 in males and 209 in females, totalling 1,381, in 1964.The increase in these categories in 1965 over 1964 is thus 26 per cent.as compared with an increase of 22 5 per cent. in 1964 over 1963.The male: female ratio remains, as in 1964, approximately 5-5 to 1.The numbers of cases of infectious syphilis, that is primary, secondary and early latent cases, re- ported from ten urban areas in 1963 and 1964 are shown in Table I.