A group of papers on Greenland all dated 1965 indicated extensive VD among Eskimos there: 40 per cent of both males and females had had gonorrhea on more than three occasions; a quarter of the unmarried population had been infected during the preceding six months. Of 52 young women aged 16 to 19, only 5 had not had gonorrhea.

Let us see now what can be said of VD in the Soviet Union and China, which together account for something like one quarter of the population of the earth. There is a WHO report, prepared by a traveling seminar of twenty two physicians from nineteen countries who visited Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, Kiev, and the Uzbek S.S.R. under the leadership of the British venereologist R. R. Willcox. The report is dated 1964. The statistical material in this report is summarized as follows, using again rates per 100,000 of population:

The report mentions that the early figures, for Czarist Russia, are doubtless low because of much unregistered VD treated in private practice, and points up the evident deficiency of gonorrhea control as shown not only by the figures but by the overall ratio of males to females (3.5:1) which suggests that much gonorrhea in women was undiagnosed.

Nor can we tell from these figures whether there has been a rise in VD in recent years, as has occurred in other advanced countries. If the 1960 figures are compared with the low figures for Western countries, the record of the Soviet Union would be no more than average for both diseases. But if these levels have been maintained, the Soviet Union would be in the lead for syphilis control and only a little lower for gonorrhea.

Another index of syphilis in the U.S.S.R. is given in two from the Soviet literature, one cited in a WHO paper, the other in a German report. Both give results of tests for antibodies of the reagin (Wassermann) type, the first in 1,560,000 pregnant women tested in the U.S.S.R. between 1958 and 1968, the second for the general population between 1955 and 1963. In the first set the figure given is 0.0013 per cent, the lowest by far in a tabulation including, for the same period, in increasing order, Denmark (0.01 0.08), England and Wales (0.08 0.43), France (0.4 0.5), Norway (0.78) and the U.S.A. (0.8 1.2). The second Soviet figure, for the general population, is 0.0032 to 0.02 per cent. Some figures for positive blood tests among national populations, given in the WHO report, may be compared: in West Germany, 1957 1963, estimated as 0.20; in Switzerland for 1963, 0.04 among 95,000 blood donors; and in France for 1958, 1960, and 1963, 0.30. Again the Soviet percentages are the lowest of the lot. The Willcox committee report, beyond making it evident that syphilis has not been abolished in the Soviet Union, emphasizes gonorrhea:

“The opinion has been expressed that in the world as a whole the methods so far available have failed to control gonorrhea and that new techniques (for example, immunization, if that can be achieved) are required.”

Reports on clinical aspects of both syphilis and gonorrhea continue to appear in the Soviet technical literature. This fact supports the general impression to be drawn from that the U.S.S.R. may now be somewhat, perhaps considerably, ahead of the rest of us in VD control, but has not yet come close to abolishing either disease. (see OTHER COUNTRIES VD STATISTICS PART II)