B.C. researchers get patent to develop potential vaccine for syphilis
Posted April 24, 2018 1:46 pm.
Last Updated April 24, 2018 3:55 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER – Researchers at the University of Victoria have been granted a patent to develop a potential vaccine against syphilis.
Microbiologist Caroline Cameron says rates of the sexually transmitted disease are climbing worldwide and a vaccine would complement current treatment with penicillin.
She says increasingly high rates of syphilis are occurring among men who have sex with men and it often goes undetected.
Cameron says researchers are trying to understand the function of a protein that works to prevent syphilis bacterium from entering the bloodstream and spreading throughout the body as they work on a vaccine, which could be more than a decade away.
She says the World Health Organization is promoting vaccine development for sexually transmitted infections and scientists around the globe are also working on possible vaccines for gonorrhea and chlamydia.
The Public Health Agency of Canada says between 2010 and 2015, the country’s rate of syphilis increased by nearly 86 per cent.
