PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Officials in Delaware County say the COVID-19 pandemic has helped the spread of a sexually transmitted disease, particularly among younger women.
The county is seeing its largest amount of new syphilis cases in 20 years, according to County Medical Advisor Dr. Lisa O’Mahony.
Delaware County had 104 reported early syphilis cases in the first six months of this year. That amount exceeded all such cases for the 2020 calendar year.
The county is on pace to see more than 200 cases by the end of 2021.
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"One of the big concerns is the increases in women of child-bearing years, so that’s ages 15-44 and they represent 84% of cases," she said.
Dr. O’Mahony explained that the COVID-19 pandemic helped increase these cases which have been spread throughout the county, and not just in a single cluster.
She added that’s because a lot of people were not able to go to their regular medical facility.
"With the pandemic, one of the things that really got intensified was that this younger population really had interrupted medical care," Dr. O'Mahony explained.
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"There was sort of a lack of regular medical care where people had a medical home the pandemic was a disruption in medical care and services, especially for this younger population."
She also cited people's behaviors.
"It could be individuals have multiple sex partners," she said. "It could be there's non-existent or inconsistent condom use."
Dr. O’Mahony added that the uptick in syphilis in the county is being seen across the state, as well as the country.
