By Kim Hyun-bin
Alarms are sounding for health officials in the country as there has been a drastic surge in the number of people diagnosed with syphilis in recent years.
Syphilis is a sexually-transmitted disease (STD) which causes long-term complications and even death when not treated properly.
According to data released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), there were 776 syphilis patients in 2013, but that number jumped nearly threefold within half a decade to 2,138 patients in 2017.
People in their 20s accounted for 37 percent of all syphilis infections last year with 787, the age group with the largest number of patients, up from 258 in 2013.
Over the same period, the number of people in their 30s diagnosed with the disease also rose from 186 to 499, in their 40s from 138 to 322, and in their 60s from eight to 116.
Military data also shows the number of soldiers diagnosed with syphilis rose from 38 in 2013 to 201 in 2017. The KCDC has begun educating new enlistees about better prevention and early detection of STDs.
"The average marriage age is getting older and having sexual relations has become common among people in their 20s to 30s, and we presume that is why the level of syphilis patients in Korea is matching those in other advanced countries," the KCDC said.
Symptoms of syphilis in adults include painless sores followed by a non-itchy body rash. However, when left untreated, it can lead to neurological and cardiovascular complications. It also increases the risk of HIV infection, and for pregnant woman, it could infect the newborn.
In 2015, around 45.4 million people were infected with syphilis worldwide and 107,000 died. However, the number was half that of 1990, when nearly 202,000 died of the disease.
Rise of syphilis in US and Japan
Health officials from both the U.S. and Japan are also in a state of emergency due to syphilis.
The Japanese?National Institute of Infectious Diseases said over 5,000 cases of syphilis have been reported for two consecutive years up to 2017.
In 2017, there were 5,534 syphilis patients, a close to seven-fold increase from 2012's 865, the first time syphilis patients exceeded the 5,000 mark since 1973. This year, health officials put the tally at 5,081 in mid-October, with 88 cases being reported in the last week of September alone.
The results are no different in the U.S.
According to annual data released by U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in September, there have been 30,644 cases of syphilis in the U.S., a 76 percent increase from the previous year. Some 70 percent of the infected were either homosexual or bisexual.
The CDC says cases of congenital syphilis, an often life-threatening infection in infants, have more than doubled since 2013 in America. A pregnant woman who has syphilis can spread the disease to her baby through the placenta.
There were 918 cases of syphilis in infants in 2017, marking a 20-year high, according to the CDC, 46 percent up from 628 cases the previous year, and 362 in 2013.
Doctors say if mothers don't get the proper prenatal care to check for syphilis, it can be deadly for the baby.
If syphilis is detected at an early stage, doctors say a shot of penicillin can cure the mother and stop the baby from contracting the infection.