Infectious syphilis notifications for Australian adults continue to rise, new data show, with positivity rates among women in major cities increasing by more than 60% in the past decade.

This trend suggested a need for enhanced prevention, researchers said, including renewed focus on reducing infection among Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities, where rates were particularly high.

“We need to remember that notification rates are 44 times higher — and congenital syphilis cases are 15 times higher — in the Indigenous community,” said Dr Allison Carter (PhD), from the Kirby Institute, Sydney, who presented the findings at the virtual Australasian HIV & AIDS Conference 2021 last week.

Drawing on de-identified data from a national network of 34 sexual health clinics, she said the team used records for 52,000 women and 36,000 heterosexual men to identify trends in infectious syphilis positivity between 2011 and 2019.