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Rates dropped by an average of 15% during the Edmonton phase and then by 25% during the provincial phase, the team reports in an article published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. This is very strong supportive evidence that point-of-care testing and treatment in affected populations has had an impact in terms of bringing those numbers down," says principal investigator Ameeta Singh, clinical professor of infectious diseases in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. In a separate study between 2017 and 2019, two-thirds of women with syphilis in Alberta self-identified as Indigenous and half lived in the lowest-income neighborhoods. "The Indigenous population in Alberta is disproportionately affected by syphilis and other STIs, and there is a significant overlap with many social determinants of health such as houselessness, poverty, mental health and addictions, as well as the impacts of racism and colonialism," Singh says."