Nearly one-third of sexually active HIV-positive men who have sex with men are not tested for syphilis at least annually, researchers reported in a recent study, calling the finding “concerning.”

Alex de Voux, PhD, an Epidemiologist in the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, and colleagues sought to examine the proportion of sexually active HIV-positive men who have sex with men (MSM) currently in care who were tested for syphilis in the past 3, 6 and 12 months by their HIV care provider.

A 2017 study showed that MSM accounted for more than 60% of syphilis cases nationwide in 2015. In that study, researchers determined that the rate of primary and secondary syphilis in the United States among MSM was 106 times that of men who have sex with women only.

In the current study, the authors noted that guidelines recommend that sexually active MSM, including HIV-positive MSM, be tested at least annually for syphilis, with testing every 3 to 6 months for MSM at elevated risk, and used this timeline to evaluate the group.

De Voux said that although the findings suggest a continued trend in syphilis testing among MSM, the fact that nearly one-third of HIV-positive MSM are not being regularly tested is cause for concern.

“Screening and prompt treatment of syphilis are a core component of controlling syphilis, so it’s important to closely monitor screening rates and get the most recent data in the hands of health care providers,” de Voux told Infectious Disease News. Read more via Healio

Alex de Voux, Kyle Bernstein, Heather Bradley, Robert D Kirkcaldy, Yunfeng Tie, R Luke Shouse, Medical Monitoring Project; Syphilis testing among sexually active men who have sex with men and who are receiving medical care for HIV in the United States—Medical Monitoring Project, 2013–2014, Clinical Infectious Diseases, , ciy571, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy571