• Posted April 17, 2026

This Sexually Transmitted Infection Linked To Heart Attack, Stroke

Syphilis is on the rise in the United States, and with it the threat that a long-term untreated infection could pose to a person’s heart health, a new study says.

The sexually transmitted disease (STD) doubles a person’s risk of ruptured blood vessels and dramatically increases their odds of stroke and heart attack, researchers reported April 13 in JAMA Network Open.

“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and with syphilis cases rising recently, this association is something that all providers treating high-risk patients need to be aware of,” lead researcher Eli Tsakiris, a medical student at Tulane University in New Orleans, said in a news release.

Syphilis rates have been increasing sharply in the U.S., with reported cases rising more than 80% between 2018 and 2023, researchers said in background notes. 

The infection is caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum and spreads through sexual contact.

Syphilis can be easily cured, with existing antibiotics largely effective, researchers said. Sometimes a single shot of penicillin is enough to wipe out the disease.

Untreated syphilis can do serious harm to a person’s health, damaging their nervous system, eyes, ears, brain, liver and other organs.

Syphilis also has been known to harm the heart and blood vessels, but no recent studies have attempted to assess the exact risk posed by the disease to heart health, researchers said.

For the new study, researchers used data from three New Orleans hospitals to compare nearly 1,500 people with syphilis with about 7,300 people who didn’t have the infection. Their health was tracked over 15 years, beginning in 2011.

Results showed that patients with syphilis had twice the risk of aortic aneurysm, a bulge in the wall of the aorta that can cause lift-threatening bleeding if it ruptures. The aorta is the largest artery in the body, carrying oxygenated blood from the heart.

Syphilis patients also had a 92% higher risk of stroke caused by bleeding; a 53% higher risk of stroke caused by blood clots; and a 31% higher risk of heart attack, the study found.

Patients also had a 28% increased risk of peripheral artery disease, a condition in which a person’s extremities develop cramping, numbness and open sores due to reduced blood flow from the heart. This is the first study to link syphilis to the condition, researchers said.

Researchers noted that because this was an observational study, they could not draw a direct cause-and-effect link between syphilis and heart health.

However, the results suggest that heart problems among people with long-term syphilis might be more common than many doctors realize, researchers said.

“We know that syphilis can increase systemic inflammation. This is important as it is known that inflammation can really kick start and accelerate processes that push cardiovascular disease into overdrive,” senior researcher Dr. Amitabh Pandey, director of Cardiovascular Translational Research at Tulane University, said in a news release.

“What we’ve shown here is that with syphilis, these manifestations of cardiovascular disease may be overlooked currently, but they should not be ignored,” Pandey said. "Especially because they can outlast even the treatment of the syphilis and still contribute to cardiovascular disease.” 

Early symptoms of syphilis include sores at the infection site, typically the penis, vulva or vagina. As it progresses, people might experience skin rashes, raised gray or white lesions in moist areas, flu-like symptoms, patchy hair loss, weight loss, headaches and swollen lymph notes, according to Yale School of Medicine.

If left untreated, about 30% of people with syphilis will develop complications that affect organs and tissues throughout the body, according to Yale.

More information

Yale School of Medicine has more about syphilis.

SOURCE: Tulane University, news release, April 15, 2026