HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

Gonorrhea reports have increased in Montreal by 65 percent over the last five years, according to National Public Health Institute of Quebec researchers. Worse, there was a 40 percent increase in 2006 alone, when there were 1,299 gonorrhea infections. Institute researchers noted "the control of this infection must constitute a public health priority by the mere fact of its prevalence in certain populations and its consequences on fertility."

Prevalence is greatest among men ages 20 to 29 and women ages 15 to 24. And 30 percent of those infected with gonorrhea had strains that resisted treatment with regular antibiotics, compared to 7 percent resistance in 2004.

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ven the higher case counts are likely to be an underestimate of the true number, officials said, because private-practice doctors may not report cases or may treat patients without lab work.

According to data from L'Actuel, a Montreal AIDS clinic, there were more than 400 syphilis reports in the city last year. "To give some perspective, we had three cases in the entire province in 1998. And more than half the people who contract syphilis are HIV-positive," said Dr. Rejean Thomas, L'Actuel's founder.

from the Toronto Star