The number of cases of newly-developed syphilis recorded in Denmark jumped by more than 50 percent in 2014.

Last year there were 530 cases of the disease found in 523 patients compared to 352 cases in 2013, according to the health agency Statens Serums Institut (SSI).

The sexually-transmitted disease was all but absent from the country at the beginning of the century, but the number of reported cases climbed during the following decade and peaked in 2011. There was a fall in 2012, followed by further increases in 2013 and 2014.

More than 90 percent of the total instances last year were detected in men and 83 percent of them were homosexual.

SSI highlights, though, that the fact that 20 women were infected points to the syphilis also being spread among the heterosexual population.