BUTLER COUNTY SYPHILIS RATES
2007: 4 cases
2008: 4 cases
2009: 11 cases
2010: 12 cases
2011: 16 cases
2012: 30 cases
2013: 28 cases
2014: 35 cases
January to March 2015: 12 cases
Source: Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County
Health officials across Butler County are putting their heads together to tackle a spike in certain communicable diseases.
Rates in Butler County for the sexually-transmitted disease syphilis have steadily increased over 700 percent since 2007 — from just four cases a year to 35 cases in 2014, according to health officials.
“The numbers have been creeping up steadily,” said Jennifer Bailer, director of nursing for Butler County Health Department.
In the first three months of 2015, there have been 12 cases in Butler County, she said.
Butler County and city health department officials from Hamilton and Middletown, whom meet regularly, focused last week on planning efforts around reducing syphilis rates.
Bailer said two immediate goals are to identify more locations to conduct testing and treatment of the disease, as well as to find sites around the county to park an RV from Hamilton County twice a month for additional testing of syphilis, HIV and hepatitis C.
“Those diseases can run together; we want comprehensive testing available,” Bailer said.
Bailer said the additional testing and treatment sites would primarily be for low-income people without insurance or who don’t regularly visit a doctor’s office.
Jackie Phillips, health commissioner in Middletown, said the health department is always tracking trends in disease and “when we see increasing rates we have to attack it.”
“Some of (the increase locally) is attributed to heroin; it’s not spread through needles directly but people engage in certain activities to help pay for drugs,” Bailer said.
Bailer said as Hamilton County’s syphilis rates have been a “problem” for a number of years, it’s naturally moving into neighboring areas, including Butler County. She said Hamilton County has special assistance programs in place through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reduce the spread.
Phillips said the health departments need to jointly create a comprehensive health plan.
“Until we really start getting our mind around that we need to treat health issues and social issues holistically … then we’re going to constantly keep spending our money unwisely and we’re going to be disconnected,” Phillips said.
Diagnosis and treatment
Syphilis is diagnosed through a blood test, with treatment being a large dose of bicillin injected into the hip. The disease — passed from sexual and skin-to-skin contact — can be “a little bit of a tricky disease” to diagnose through symptoms due to different stages, Bailer said.
Those stages are primary with a small, firm, painless bump on the site of infection for up to six weeks before healing; secondary with a body rash, fever, fatigue, etc.; and latent where the disease is hidden and gives no outward sign.
“Treatment is pretty easy but finding all the people that need to be treated is not so easy,” Bailer said.
Bailer said if left untreated, syphilis can cause damage to internal organs, including brain, nerves, eyes and heart, and the development of paralysis, numbness, gradual blindness and dementia.
Kay Farrar, city of Hamilton health commissioner, said the health departments are also dispersing education packets from the Ohio Department of Health, including a physician’s pocket guide, to health care providers around the county for a refresher on signs and symptoms of the disease.
“The goal is to contain (the number of cases) where it’s at now and bring it down,” Farrar said.
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