Enhanced Surveillance of Infectious Syphilis in England and Wales

Introduction

Enhanced surveillance was established in 2001 to better characterise the distribution of infection as well as monitoring infection trends among behavioural risk groups.  This information has been used to: (1) inform sexual health promotion interventions; (2) identify groups with significant levels of infection; and (3) provide data to inform our understanding of the burden of syphilis infection.

Please note: Last day of enhanced surveillance of infectious syphilis: 31st December 2010

As part of internal reviews the HPA has been decided that 31st December 2010 will be the last day of operation for the enhanced surveillance of infectious syphilis.  Details are given in the GUMCAD update for clinics – 21 December 2010 (PDF, 169 KB).  In future, GUMCAD will be used as the information source for infectious syphilis.  As well as having a number of technical advantages over the enhanced systems, GUMCAD data will provide a more detailed insight into the epidemic of infectious syphilis.

We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in enhanced surveillance over the past ten years and your continued support in the future.