Diagnosis and Treatment of Syphilis

IN spite of excellent methods for diagnosing and treating syphilis, the disease is still widespread. There was a marked upsurge in the reported cases of infectious (primary and secondary) syphilis in the United States in the late 1950's and early 1960's, which reached a peak in 1965, when over 25,000 cases were reported.1 A gradual decrease in reported cases of infectious syphilis occurred after 1965, but in the first seven months of 1970 a steady, 10 to 12 per cent, increase in cases is again being reported.2 Moreover, the true incidence is undoubtedly much higher. Fleming et al. recently mailed . . .