Syphilis in the AIDS Era

IT is difficult for those of us practicing modern-day medicine to comprehend how pervasive syphilis was in the pre-antibiotic era. For example, medical textbooks commonly divided the discussion of organ systems into sections on congenital defects, tumors, trauma, and infections, but listed syphilis as a separate category. Sir William Osier was often quoted: "Know syphilis in all its manifestations and relations, and all other things clinical will be added unto you."All that has changed. No disease was more dramatically affected by antibiotics than syphilis. The incidence fell 18-fold from a peak of 72 cases per 100,000 population in 1943 . . .