For the seventh year in a row, rates of syphilis infection have increased in the United States, driven largely by cases among gay and bisexual men, according to a new federal report.

CDC's preliminary 2007 data indicate that the rate of primary and secondary syphilis -- the earliest and most infectious stages of the disease -- increased by 12 percent between 2006 and 2007," Dr. Hillard Weinstock, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of STD Prevention, said during a Wednesday teleconference. Weinstock spoke at the CDC-sponsored 2008 National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago.

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