Homeless drug users in Topeka and Shawnee County earned the area a dubious distinction recently, notching the county the top-ranked position in the State of Kansas for syphilis cases with some 24 percent of all cases reported in Kansas’ 105 counties.
The Topeka Capital-Journal said the Kansas Department of Health and Enivronment did not issue a press release when the outbreak was identified last year, nor when it was pronounced concluded this past July.
The City of Topeka has been struggling with a homelessness problem for the last several years, and in February 2023 cleared out a homeless encampment along the Kansas River under a newly adopted camping prohibition. Later in the year the city unveiled what it billed as a new homeless initiative featuring extensive study of the problem by a research firm.
Officials said the outbreak began in May 2023. An alert from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to health departments and Medical Services providers in January of this year said 146 cases were confirmed in Shawnee County between May and December 2023, a 90% increase compared to the same period in 2022.
News of the syphilis outbreak came on the Kansas Department of Health and Environment website. A notice on the site said KDHE and the Shawnee County Health Department had been working together in response to a “person-to-person” outbreak of the disease. The release said the outbreak appeared to be localized among homeless individuals as well as injection and non-injection drug users, and was afflicting men and women as opposed to the traditional disease targets – men who have sex with other men.
https://www.kdhe.ks.gov/DocumentCenter/View/34243/Syphilis-Fact-Sheet-for-Physicians?bidId=
Syphilis is a bacterial infection primarily spread by sexual contact that can cause serious health problems if left untreated, including neurological and organ damage. Transmission comes through direct contact with a syphlitic sore known as a canker, during oral, vaginal or anal sex. The diseased can also be passed through blood transfusions or from pregnant women to their babies. It can be cured with antibiotics.
So far in 2024 Sedgwick County has led the state and homelessness followed by Shawnee and Douglas county. The Kansas Homeless Coalition counted about 2,800 individuals in the state this year classified as homeless, although people who work with the homeless say the number is probably much higher.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
