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Newly released medical statistics point to a troubling increase in the number of syphilis cases in the province – something that should spur the Stelmach government into immediate action.

According to Alberta Health, there were 263 syphilis cases reported in 2009, an increase of seven percent over 2008 and a huge jump from just 10 years ago, when there was not a single case reported.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says that cases of syphilis in Alberta are now more than twice the national average, and second only to the Northwest Territories in overall infection rates.

While the increasing number of syphilis cases is bad news for the adult Albertans infected, it is even worse news for an increasing number of newborns – six babies were born last year with congenital syphilis and three of those subsequently died of the disease.

While syphilis is usually treatable by a single antibiotic shot, if left untreated it can lead to brain damage, heart failure and other serious ailments. Alberta’s top physician, Dr. Andre Corriveau, says the rise in cases of syphilis points to a need for all stakeholders, including the provincial government, to do more to fight this insidious and sometimes deadly disease.

"A lot of the work against syphilis had to be slowed down because of the response to H1N1," said Corriveau. "We want our syphilis rates to go back to zero, the way they were a decade ago."

The jump in syphilis cases can be attributed, at least in part, to a lack of leadership on the part of the Stelmach government, the opposition parties say.

"People need to understand that the rates of syphilis we’re seeing in Alberta are extremely high for an industrialized society in which we have a modern health-care system," said NDP leader Brian Mason. "So it indicates a real failure somewhere of the leadership in health care in the province."

There’s no question that as the principle provider of health services in Alberta, the provincial government has an obligation to do whatever it can to fight syphilis and other wholly preventable sexually transmitted diseases.

The government should perhaps look to the recent successful H1N1 public awareness campaign as a model for a new campaign aimed at heightening overall awareness of sexually transmitted disease prevention.

In any event, Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky can make a positive and immediate mark on his new portfolio by making one of his first priorities the battle against the scourge of syphilis.

Failure to do so will, of course, only prove the opposition parties right when they claim, yet again, that the Stelmach Tories are failing to show sufficient health-care leadership.