Sexually transmitted infections aren’t something most of us like to talk or even think about. But when we do, syphilis doesn’t immediately spring to mind. After all, it’s a disease of the past, right?

Wrong. Syphilis rates are rising in BC and in the rest of Canada. The latest statistics reveal that BC has the highest reported rate of syphilis in Canada, with 6.9 cases per 100,000 people—more than double the rate of 10 years ago.

Dr. Caroline Cameron (biochemistry and microbiology), a University of Victoria microbiologist and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Molecular Pathogenesis since 2006, is one of a handful of researchers who study this disease and the only one in Canada examining it at a basic science level.

Cameron is trying to understand how the syphilis bacterium, Treponema pallidum, attaches to the tissues of its host, how it passes through the tissue barrier and how it spreads to distant tissue sites.

Read more about Dr. Cameron’s syphilis research and the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology.