A medieval disease is making a comeback in England - and cases have quadrupled in Merseyside over the last decade.
Cases of syphilis, the ancient sexually transmitted disease, increased by 15% to nearly 8,700 diagnoses in England last year - the largest annual number since 1948. In Merseyside, cases increased by 70%, from 90 infections in 2021 to 153. That is the highest number since 2018.
Over the last 10 years, the trend has generally seen syphilis infections increase in Merseyside - apart from a slight fall in 2019 and then a bigger decrease during the pandemic. They are now four times higher than they were a decade ago, in 2012, when just 38 infections were diagnosed
