Was ‘idiot’ politics to blame for Australia’s syphilis epidemic?
![Couple holding hands](https://www.ausdoc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/couple-hands-istock-916492794-1.jpg)
‘She was struggling to get the girl to come back for treatment so she told her that if she didn’t come back, all her hair would fall out.”
This is a GP talking about the psychology employed by one of her colleagues — an Aboriginal health worker — for patient recalls. Both are at the heart of a battle against the syphilis outbreak that has been raging across Australia for the past eight years.