Health authorities say they have ramped up their work to control a syphilis outbreak that started in northern Australia after reports the infection is creeping towards metropolitan Perth.
A bacterial infection spread by sexual contact, syphilis cases were first reported in the Kimberley region in 2014.
While case numbers steadily rose around northern Australia in the years following, health services say the focus on COVID-19 messaging and health promotion has overtaken concerns around the infection.
But figures revealing a serious upward trend between 2020 and 2021 and a jump in cases recorded year-to-date have prompted services to renew their health messaging around the infection.
The Kimberley has already recorded 54 cases so far this year, followed by the Pilbara with 46, and rising numbers have also been recorded in the Goldfields and in the Mid West.
Health services in the remote Kimberley, in particular, have ramped up their efforts to address the rising cases.
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Service medical director Lorraine Anderson said it was time to renew their focus.
"We had no choice [but to] do that, and a lot of our background prevention, testing and treating has slipped by in the last two years.
"Now that we've got a bit of space in our calendars, everyone who's involved in any sort of primary health care, sexually transmitted diseases, public health — we're very much getting back on track with testing and treating syphilis."
Dr Anderson said there was evidence the infection had begun to travel outside of northern Western Australia.
"It's come across northern Australia, through the Kimberley and down into the Pilbara … it's now starting to hit metropolitan Perth," she said.
"With respect to COVID-19, we've wanted that to be front and centre for the last two years.
Nindilingarri Cultural Health Service has been running one of the campaigns promoting testing in the Fitzroy Valley in central Kimberley, a hub for transient, northern WA and Northern Territory populations.
Sexual health promotion officer Helen Ryda said the service identified a need to ramp up its testing after potentially deadly congenital cases were reported in the Valley.
Ms Ryda said it was particularly difficult educating locals about the infection, as it could present as symptomless until a chancre sore appeared.
"If you have the sore and it goes away, you're not going to think anything of it," Ms Ryda said.
"Then once that goes away, that's when you actually reach your most … contagious, and [you] don't know that you're spreading the infection.
"It is happening everywhere."
Ms Ryda said their campaign focused mainly on addressing gaps in Kimberley community access, including ideas around shame, stigma and the accessibility of contraception.
"If you're out in a small community or something, maybe the shop doesn't carry condoms," Ms Ryda said.
"There's definitely a lot of challenges, but we're doing our best."
