Officials at the Broome County Department of Health confirmed on Monday the re-emergence of syphilis in the county.

Although they reported that between six and ten cases of the sexually transmitted disease have been diagnosed in the county in the last three years, they would not disclose the number of diagnoses confirmed this year.

Syphilis has been making its unwelcome comeback in the United States since 2000, with 7,177 reported cases in 2003 versus a significantly fewer 5,979 in 2000. The confirmation adds to the trend of rising STD rates, both in the Southern Tier and on a broader national level.

“I’m not aware of any cases on campus,” said Johann Fiore Conte, director of Binghamton University Health Services. “It’s something we dealt with years ago and have not seen recently.”

Sometimes known as the “great imitator” due to its wide possibility of symptoms, many of which closely resemble other diseases, syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease most commonly contracted through sexual contact with an already infected partner. The primary symptom is often a small and painless ulcer called a chancre — pronounced “shanker” — which forms at the place of infection anywhere from nine to 90 days after exposure. Additional symptoms include skin rash, sore throat, fatigue, headache and swollen lymph glands.

Left untreated, a syphilis infection will become latent, possibly remaining dormant for years, and can develop into more serious complications including mental illness, blindness, neurological problems and death.

“Syphilis is a reportable disease,” Fiore Conte said. “The best way to control its spread is to try to get a sense of whether there were other contacts exposed.”

According to Bridget McCane-Saunders, the BU’s health education supervisor and supervisor of the peer education project Real Education About College Health (R.E.AC.H.), that is just the kind of case-by-case management her peer counselors try to tackle.

R.E.A.C.H. trains and dispatches students in order to provide a more genuine and effective means of education to the student population on health concerns most prevalent to them.

While R.E.A.C.H. offers traditional methods of outreach, such as one-on-one counseling, and open-forum discussions, much of their more effective and relatively unorthodox education comes in the form of their “street outreach model,” in which peer educators engage students in natural settings and initiate conversations about a particular health topic, including syphilis and other STDs.

Through this method, McCane-Saunders estimates that over 1,500 students are reached and educated each semester.

“Certainly knowledge is power,” said Fiore Conte, who maintained that syphilis, when detected … is very treatable.”

Testing for syphilis is similar to any rudimentary procedure where blood is drawn, according to Fiore Conte, and while syphilis testing is usually done at larger health organizations, testing materials could be ordered and administered on campus if necessary.

Many of the recently reported cases in the county span age groups, as well as sexual orientation.

“We’re seeing this issue among men who have sex with men,” said McCane-Saunders on a large portion of reported cases. “When you have unprotected sex, disease is always a possibility.”

One of the best preventative measures is limiting high-risk behavior such as unprotected sex or numerous and anonymous partners.

“Our concern is just that people are being safe,” said Lyn Nelson, director of Binghamton University’s Rainbow Pride Union (RPU). “[Syphilis] is rampant in the gay community, and in the general community for that matter. It’s a double concern.”

“We have condoms in the [RPU] room all the time,” Nelson said. “They could very well save your life.”