the fate of syphilis and syphilitics

[Guest guest]

I have been trying to learn everything about spirochetoses because the

pathology of lyme disease is so unclear.

Syphilis once was pretty much the most dreaded infection. Even into

the antibiotic age it was considered often incurable. It definitely

still exists in some of the areas where alot of biomedical research is

conducted.

Hence I have been mystified by its " disappearance. " I find virtually

zero syphilis biomedical research going on, except into its treatment

in people with AIDS. Ive never heard of anyone with syphilis as a

chronic health problem - nor seen reference to it as such in

contemporary literature, absent HIV.

PMID 15548491, Dec 2004, studies neurosyphilis in 161 South African

patients, the largest such contemporary study.

" The average duration of tx was 14.9 days in hospital, the commonest

treatment being 20 million units of penicillin G daily. Evidence of

recurrence of neurosychilis, based on clinical deterioration, a rising

CSF VDRL titer, or worsening of markers of disease activity in CSF,

was found in 20 patients (12%).

" THe outcome was known in 92 cases [three fifths]. Twenty-one

patients recovered completely, 40 suffered from residual cognitive

loss, 10 had psychiatric disorders, 7 had residual seizures, 7 had

residual hemiparesis, one suffered from tabes dorsalis, and six died. "