[Epidemiology of syphilis in Zhejiang province, 2010-2019].

Objective: To investigate the epidemiological characteristics of syphilis in Zhejiang province and to provide scientific basis for the development of syphilis prevention and control strategies. Methods: A descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the incidence data of syphilis in Zhejiang from 2010 to 2019. Results: During the period, the incidence rate of syphilis decreased from 94.90/100 000 in 2010 to 53.53/100 000 in 2019 with an average decreasing rate of 6.16%. The annual decreases of the incidences of congenital syphilis, primary syphilis and secondary syphilis were all obvious, which were 43.47%, 21.38% and 14.19% respectively. The proportion of latent syphilis cases increased with year. Except for Lishui, the incidences of syphilis in the remaining 10 prefectures showed declining trends. The incidence rates in both men and women showed declining trends with the average rates of 4.80% and 6.45% respectively. The incidence peaks occurred in old men aged ≥60 years and in sexually active women aged 20-34 years, and the syphilis cases in age group ≥60 years increased significantly. The cases were mainly farmers, accounting for 43.00%. Conclusion: The incidence of syphilis in Zhejiang showed a decreasing trend, but the situation remains serious, indicating that the intensity and quality of the comprehensive prevention and control needs to be further strengthened.

Lack of association between STK39 and hypertension in the Chinese population.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) has identified serine/threonine kinase 39 (STK39) as a candidate gene for hypertension. A replication study provided supporting evidence that STK39 functional polymorphism rs35929607 was associated with hypertension. Recently, another study also showed rs6749447 within the STK39 was associated with blood pressure responses. However, these studies were all conducted in Caucasians. Thus, we carried out a case-control study to test whether STK39 is a common candidate gene for hypertension, and to examine the interaction of genetic factors and non-genetic risk factors in the Chinese population. Thousand twenty four hypertensive cases and 1024 controls were genotyped for five polymorphisms. Four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are located within STK39, and rs4977950, the SNP that showed the strongest signal is located in a gene desert. Results indicated that none of these SNPs was associated with hypertension in the Chinese population. Logistic regression analysis found body mass index (BMI) and triglyceride level were higher in the hypertension group when compared with the control group. Multifactor dimensionality reduction analysis indicated that the interaction between BMI and rs4977950 may have an impact on hypertension. Taken together, the present study found no evidence that STK39 was associated with hypertension in the Chinese population. Instead, non-genetic risk factors such as BMI have an important role in Chinese hypertensive subjects, and the 'missing inheritability' requires further investigation.