Just read this, so all bros be aware of this!


BEIJING—China’s explosive economy is fuelling another explosion in Chinese society: the fastest growing epidemic of syphilis in modern times.

A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday calls the epidemic “a major scourge,” and notes that “no other country has seen such a precipitous increase in reported syphilis cases” since penicillin was broadly introduced to the world in the 1940s.

Untreated, syphilis can cause brain damage and even death.

China had nearly eradicated the disease 50 years ago.

But the booming economy and changing social mores have brought it back with a vengeance.

“Syphilis has become a major scourge lurking in the shadows of a country that has rapidly ascended to the status of a global economic powerhouse,” say the reports authors, lead by Dr. Joseph D. Tucker of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

How Chinese media – which is tightly controlled by the government – will react to the report remains to be seen. In China there remains a profound social stigma attached to sexually transmitted diseases.

But the report’s authors point out that success against the scourge in China can only be achieved if government heath authorities give the problem broad recognition and invest more money in publicizing the problem and increase testing.

On average, more than one baby per hour was born with congenital syphilis in China in 2008, a total of nearly 9,500 cases, the report says.

That number represents a 12-fold increase in the five years between 2003 and 2008.

The report notes that death rates among such newborns can exceed 50 per cent.

The report, entitled “Syphilis and Social Upheaval in China,” also notes that syphilis is now, “the most commonly reported communicable disease in Shanghai,” news expected to be less than welcome in China’s largest city which officially opened its doors to the world in recent days, hosting the 2010 World Expo.

Organizers have said they expect to see as many as 70 million visitors to what was once called a “world’s fair,” with as many as 95 per cent of them Chinese from other parts of the country.

The report emphasizes the link between China’s booming economy and the spike in the sexually transmitted infection.

It also notes that people with syphilis have an increased risk of both acquiring and transmitting HIV infections.

“After China’s economy became increasingly market-based in the 1980s, the growing numbers of Chinese businessmen with money and young women without money translated into expanded demand and supply for the country’s commercial sex industry,” the report says.

Migrant workers, who are said to number as many as 200 million in China, are also especially vulnerable.

But bearing the biggest burden, according to Chinese national surveillance data, are female sex workers and men who have sex with men, in part, the report notes, because of unsafe sexual practices.

The report also notes that in China, “one third of men who have sex with men are married and the transmission of syphilis to their wives and then children (at birth) is an important consideration.”

First the gonorrhea report, http://forum.sex141.com/eforum/v ... &extra=page%3D1, and now this.

What's a bro supposed to do? There's always a danger but don't think it's possible to abstain from punting. Best to just be well equipped at all times.

I seriously doubt that "China nearly eradicated the disease nearly 50 years ago."  That just sounds like another made up stat from your friends at Central Planning.

Is somebody trying to make an argument that STDs are only for mature economies?  Have they looked at Africa lately??

Well, some of these STDs can be transmitted thru skin contact. Even if you wear condom, they can still infect your skin elsewhere. So if you find some suspicious skin pattern on a WG, you better leave no matter what.

Bear in mind that in China 50 years ago it was tough times and most people practiced monogamy. Furthermore they must've had  little sex because everyone was exhausted from working in the communes all day in the Great Leap Forward or were being beaten up and harassed by little kids, those red guards. Think the only one that had lots of sex was the Great Helmsman himself and he certainly had syphilis (according to the Book 'The New Emperors' by Harrison Salisbury).

These days, lots of men can live the life of the Great Helmsman in China, particularly the bros in this forum.

[ Last edited by  geoduck at 6-5-2010 23:12 ]

Always advisable to inspect the WG first. The visual as well as the smell test (sniff sniff that xiao mei mei). This does not safeguard you from getting any STDs but its the least you can do.

Not true about people have had very little sex. Just look the population now, 1.4 billion. Yes monogamy was more common but they started young. I know some getting married at 17 and had 6 to 7 kids when done.  There wasn't any "one child policy" and age limit until later.

The article is just a warning. You asked, "What's a bro supposed to do" ?, well how about for you to get checked regularly.  If you happen to catch something, get treated.  In other words go see a doc every so often.  For those that go bareback, stop it with working girls. I don't know the statistic but I think a condom will stop about 98% of STD if a girl is effected. Then you have to worry about other things like HEB A,B,C, Bird Flu, etc that are  more contagious.


"One Chinese baby born with syphilis every hour". See this article in yahoo...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100 ... na_syphilis_scourge

[ Last edited by  Weelock at 7-5-2010 12:59 ]

Hell yeah to Mao ze dong. I bet he didn't have girls as bangable as we do today!

Actually the Great Helmsman could have anyone he wanted, pick and choose from a pool of nearly 200 million girls in the right age category. But according to the book by Harrison Salisbury, his preference was for illiterate teenage farm girls from Hunan because they speak his dialect and they weren't pretty ones either. He had quite a sexual appetite and gave them all sorts of STDs. His doctor actually warned him against having sex with the girls when he was sick but he didn't care.

I guess my point that girls improve in looks (b/c of nutrition, cosmetics, workout, awareness) over time and industrialization, massively especially btn mao's time and now.

I always suspected that this particular disease comes from Europe.  
It never seems to go away, after the fall of the Iron curtain in east germany there was a dramatic rise of cases of syphilis which leads me to conclude the Europeans are the one that are usually spreading it.
Since it pretty obvious africans, americans and asians didn't enter the country in large numbers to cause it.

I always thought that syphilis had its origins in South America, centuries ago not Europe. Like HIV had originated in Africa. These days with air travel, an epidemic and spring up anywhere.

I'm told that in his later years he couldn't get it up any more so he'd get men and women fro the PLA to come in and have sex where he could watch, so that he could at least enjoy it vicariously.

Came across this article on the same topic.

By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer Margie Mason, Ap Medical Writer – Wed May 5, 8:28 pm ET

Every hour a baby is born in China with syphilis, as the world's fastest-growing epidemic of the disease is fueled by men with new money from the nation's booming economy, researchers say.

The easy-to-cure bacterial infection, which was nearly wiped out in China five decades ago, is now the most commonly reported sexually transmitted disease in its largest city, Shanghai.

Prostitutes along with gay and bisexual men, many of whom are married with families, are driving the epidemic, according to a commentary published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The increase reflects the country's staggering economic growth, providing both businessmen and migrant laborers more cash and opportunity to pay for unsafe sex while away from home.

"In the '50s and '60s in China, syphilis and other STDs were extremely uncommon. The number of new cases has just rapidly accelerated," Dr. Joseph Tucker, lead author and an infectious disease specialist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in an interview. "Even one baby born with syphilis in China is unacceptable."

Unlike other sexually spread diseases, such as gonorrhea or chlamydia, syphilis can eventually ravage the mind and kill if left untreated. A shot of penicillin is a cheap cure, but many people never experience specific symptoms and the disease remains undiagnosed.

With no mandatory routine screening in place for pregnant women in China, the rate of mother-to-child transmission jumped from 7 to 57 cases per 100,000 live births between 2003 and 2008, Tucker said.

In the U.S., despite laws in most U.S. states requiring testing during pregnancy, the disease is also making a comeback after nearly being eliminated 10 years ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last month that after a 14-year decline, the number of babies born with syphilis rose from 8 to 10 cases per 100,000 live births from 2005 to 2008, mostly among black women in the South. The country's overall syphilis rate rose 17 percent in 2008 from the year before, with more than 60 percent of cases linked to gay sex.

The World Health Organization estimates 12 million people are infected with syphilis worldwide each year, affecting some 2 million pregnancies, with about one quarter of them resulting in miscarriages or stillbirths.

Another quarter of the babies who survive are born underweight or with serious infections, upping a newborn's risk of death during the first fragile weeks of life. Syphilis can also cause deafness, neurological problems or bone deformities in newborns.

"This damage is irreversible," said Dr. Connie Osborne, a senior HIV adviser at WHO in China. "Prevention of maternal syphilis combined with routine screening of pregnant women and early treatment of neonatal syphilis can prevent most, if not all, cases."

In recent years, China's Communist government has made huge strides in openly addressing the spread of HIV, which is easier to transmit and catch if other infections exist. But social stigma remains a huge barrier for people infected with any sexually transmitted disease, making it important for tests and treatment to be moved out of doctors' offices and into brothels, clubs and communities where high-risk groups gather.

Paul Causey, a consultant with the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health in Bangkok, said reaching married men who have sex with men in China is particularly tricky because they remain deeply closeted and do not hang out with gay men socially. A lack of a thriving civil society to provide awareness and advocacy in China also creates challenges, often leaving the responsibility to local organizations and officials.

Syphilis was nearly eradicated in China in the 1960s after a propaganda blitz to shut down brothels which included mass screening and treatment of prostitutes. But as free-market reforms thrust the nation's economy into high gear in the 1980s, the disease rebounded at an unprecedented rate.

While other countries have higher syphilis rates than China, including many in Africa, cases are now rising by 30 percent every year in the world's most populous country, with the official government number tripling between 2004 and 2008 to nearly 280,000. Some of that may be linked to better reporting and screening, and one reason why the rate of syphilis among newborns may be growing faster is because they are being tested more than in the past, Tucker said.

China's government needs to better integrate screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as determine how and when testing and treatment should be carried out all the way down to the community level, Xiang-Sheng Chen, deputy director of China's National Center for Sexually Transmitted Disease Control said in a journal published by WHO last fall.

"Unlike many Western countries, China does not have an STI public health program — which it should have," said Chen, who co-authored the commentary. "State policy has focused mainly on HIV/AIDS."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100506...yphilis_scourge

Chinese men love to play around with women and girls without money see it as a good source of income.  I doubt the government can do anything to contain this.

I wouldn't bet on that, any government that can enforce something like the one child policy for over 30 years can do whatever is necessary, don't forget for all it's happy propaganda you're dealing with a totalitarian regime here.

Yikes, thanks for the note bro!

"ALL men love to play around with women." is more appropriate.