In 2004 there were 2,250 new cases of syphilis in the UK. Over half of these new cases were in gay men and unlike other bacterial STIs, the burden of syphilis does not fall upon teenagers as the highest rates of infection are seen in older age groups.
London and the North West are the places in the UK with the highest density of infection. London, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham and Northern Ireland have all had localised outbreaks in both gay and heterosexual communities.
Syphilis comes in three stages, each of which has different symptoms. First of all you get a sore on whatever part of your body first picked up the syphilis. Normally this will be on or around your vagina or penis, anything from 10-90 days after you caught the infection. The sore is typically painless so you might not always notice it.
At stage two you might feel like you have the flu, you might get a rash all over your body and sores might develop in your mouth. Stage two occurs anything from a few months to a few years after you became infected.
If you don' get syphilis treated, some people move onto the third and potentially fatal stage. This third stage can cause serious damage to your brain, your heart and your joints as a side-effect of your body's fight against syphilis is that your immune system starts destroying critical body tissue.
You get syphilis by having unprotected vaginal, anal or oral sex with a person who already has it. You could also get it by touching a syphilitic sore on an infected person's body and then touching yourself.
To test for syphilis you need to give a blood sample. If you have a visible sore, a doctor may want to take a swab.
Penicillin injections are the normal treatment if you have syphilis and treatment tends to be effective.