Tag: Syphilis | CATIE Blog

Building the foundations for effective syphilis testing in Indigenous communities

June 25, 2025 • By Melissa Morris and Sugandhi del Canto

Syphilis is a preventable and curable sexually transmitted infection (STI) but the only way to know for sure whether or not someone has syphilis is to get tested. Amid a national syphilis epidemic, where some regions and communities are hit harder than others, access to screening and diagnosis is crucial to ending this public health threat in Canada. Syphilis rapid testing Syphilis rapid testing is a promising tool that can help reach our goals but what is it exactly and why is it important? Syphilis rapid testing detects antibodies in a blood sample and provides results within minutes, making testing...

Prevention vs. resistance: The doxyPEP dilemma

February 18, 2025 • By Kevin Woodward

It seems that everyone is taking doxyPEP now. Every day in my clinic, people ask me about it, often conflating it with HIV PrEP. Many believe that if they are on doxyPEP, worrying about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) will be a thing of the past. DoxyPEP involves taking an antibiotic called doxycycline after sex to help prevent bacterial STIs and has been primarily studied in gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM), as well as trans women. What we know from these studies is that there is a benefit for individuals, specifically gbMSM and trans women,...

Doxy-PEP for syphilis prevention: What is it, does it work and how can we overcome barriers to access?

February 13, 2024 • By Brook Biggin

For years, gay, bisexual, trans, Two-Spirit and queer (GBT2Q) communities have been experiencing unacceptably high rates of syphilis with limited action taken by others outside the work of community-based sexual health organizations. However, provincial and federal responses have been stoked due to an increase in heterosexual transmission and a rise in cases of babies born with syphilis, also known as congenital syphilis. When acquired by a fetus during pregnancy, syphilis can result in miscarriage, stillbirth or permanent disability of the newborn. Consequently, efforts to leverage innovative syphilis interventions have accelerated, alongside interest in new prevention options for GBT2Q men. One...