Sharp increase in reports of infectious syphilis in Scotland in 2002

There have been a number of recent outbreaks of infectious syphilis in several foci in Europe. To allow timely surveillance of infectious syphilis in Scotland, an enhanced surveillance system coordinated by the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) in collaboration with genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics and key laboratories was implemented in late 2002 (1). Surveillance tools developed by the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (England) were used as the basis for the surveillance system, and retrospective data were collected to the beginning of 2001.