Clinical Reminders during Bicillin L-A® Shortage

Prioritize using Bicillin L-A® to treat pregnant people with syphilis and babies with congenital syphilis – penicillin is the only recommended treatment for these populations.

 FDA approves import of French drug for syphilis amidst wider drug shortages

Though not approved in the US, Laboratoires Delbert’s extencilline will be the available alternative to Pfizer’s Bicillin L-A.

 Syphilis Is Killing Babies. The U.S. Government Is Failing to Stop the Disease From Spreading

The only drug that treats syphilis during pregnancy is in short supply. Untreated, the disease can pass to newborns, killing them or leaving them with disabilities. As cases rise sharply, the government isn’t doing much to prevent shortages.

Syphilis

Owing to its varied and often subtle manifestations, which can mimic other infections, syphilis has earned the names the Great Imitator and Great Mimicker14. Patients with primary syphilis present with a single ulcer (chancre) or multiple lesions on the genitals or other body sites involved in sexual contact and present regional lymphadenopathy ∼3 weeks after infection; these are typically painless and resolve spontaneously.

Syphilis Update

STD/HIV Clinical Update: San Francisco, California Prevention Training Center, February 8, 2018.

Syphilis in the ED: Presentations, Diagnosis, and Management of the Great Imitator

It is important to note that once a patient tests positive for RPR/VDRL they will remain positive for life, making screening for reinfection difficult. The confirmatory tests include serum fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption test (FTA-ABS) and darkfield microscopy; however, these are usually unavailable in the ED.

Generations later, the effects of the Tuskegee syphilis study linger

Decades later, it’s still hard to grasp what the federal government did to hundreds of black men in rural Alabama — even if you’re among their descendants, lighting candles in their memory.

How Syphilis Came Roaring Back

The 18th-century ailment was on the brink of elimination before budget cuts helped resurrect it.

Syphilis is making a comeback

Syphilis, once nearly eliminated in the US, is on the rise again — and gay men account for a bulk of the increase.

Syphilis, The Chameleon of Medicine

There’s nothing quite like syphilis. The sexually transmitted bug that sullied Christopher Columbus’ journey either to the New World or his return back to the Old – we’re still debating this grand chicken-or-egg epidemiological mystery – has deranged the minds of dictators and kings, was once a leading cause of committed hospitalizations to the psych ward, and even sparked fashion trends among members of the European royal courts who sought to cloak its debilitating, tell-tale symptoms.

Syphilis: Then and Now

Researchers are zeroing in on the origin of syphilis and related diseases, which continue to plague the human population some 500 years after the first documented case.

A Generation of Bad Blood

New research suggests a strong link between the public revelation of the Tuskegee Study and poor health outcomes for black men.

A New Skeleton and an Old Debate About Syphilis

The recent discovery of ancient remains with signs of the disease shows how mysterious its origins are.

Babies born with syphilis in the US are at a 20-year high

That can mostly be chalked up to pregnant women not receiving adequate testing or treatment for syphilis during their pregnancies; although not all mothers with syphilis pass the infection along to their children, it’s highly likely.

Canada Made Some Dick Cartoons About Syphilis

Health officials in British Columbia are not dicking around about a syphilis epidemic plaguing their province. No, actually, they are. The BC Centre for Disease control recently launched a campaign using cartoon dick pics of famous historical figures believed to have suffered from the infection to raise public awareness.

Case Closed? Columbus Introduced Syphilis to Europe

Syphilis was one of the first global diseases, and understanding where it came from and how it spread may help us combat diseases today.

Gonorrhea, Syphilis Increasing In The US, STD Report Shows

More and more people are developing gonorrhea and syphilis in the U.S., according to a new government report examining cases of three sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Hunting a Killer: Sex, Drugs and the Return of Syphilis

Outbreaks of a deadly, sexually transmitted disease confound health officials, whose obstacles include drug shortages, uneducated doctors and gangs.

Know Your Syphilis Atrocities: Who Did America Value Less, Black Americans or Guatemalans?

So the U.S. government did not go around intentionally infecting black people with syphilis. It went around intentionally infecting Guatemalans. This captures the history of our Latin American policy about as neatly as Tuskegee illustrates domestic policy.

Less Than 50 Years After Tuskegee, Can Trust In Our Health System Be Restored?

This horrific clinical study – conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) – deceived 600 impoverished black men into thinking they were receiving medical care. Instead, they were lied to about their health, disease status and given placebos such as aspirin in lieu of treatments. All in the name of learning what happens as disease takes its course on the human body. The experiment, which was to last for six months, carried on for 40 years, even as funding for the work was lost and a treatment for syphilis (penicillin) was discovered.

Syphilis Rises Sharply Among Newborns

Along with an increase in adult infections, the rate of infants born with the disease has reached a 20-year high.

Syphilis, sex and fear: How the French disease conquered the world

Researching the Borgias, Sarah Dunant learnt how syphilis took Europe by storm during the 1490s, and the far reaching effects it's had ever since.

Why is syphilis making a comeback in London?

Syphilis is often thought of as an historic sexually transmitted infection. It was prevalent up until the mid-20th century after which numbers of infections dropped significantly through effective antibiotic treatment and an awareness of signs and symptoms. But worryingly, syphilis has returned as a threat to our population.

Worse Than Tuskegee

Seventy years ago, American researchers infected Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea, then left without treating them. Their families are still waiting for help.

Everything You Need to Know About Syphilis

The old-school STD syphilis is making a stealthy comeback.

Syphilis, The Silent Intruder & The Great Imitator

As syphilis is a great Imitator in world of medicine , it is absolutely not recommended to get self tested by internet testing websites . It is a serious disease and need to be evaluated...

Testing for “the great imitator”

The approach... is to perform an initial test with EIA. If this is positive, the diagnosis is confirmed using TPPA. Disease activity is then determined using RPR.14,15 Depending on the patient-management system in use and the methodology of the local laboratory, clinicians either select “syphilis serology” on the laboratory request form or request the individual tests.

How Syphilis Sneaked Up on Americans

The U.S. stopped taking STDs seriously, and now we’re suffering the consequences.

Laboratory Testing

Nontreponemal tests detect nonspecific, antilipid (reagin) antibodies that form in response to cellular damage as a result of infection. Because nontreponemal tests are not specific for syphilis, false-positive results can be seen in patients with other conditions that lead to cell damage, such as autoimmune diseases. Positive nontreponemal results should be followed with a treponemal assay, such as the T. pallidum particle agglutination (TP-PA) assay, for confirmation. 5

Syphilis is making a come-back, and causing some unusual health problems

Syphilis is a sexually transmissible infectious disease that has plagued humankind for centuries. Today, syphilis is diagnosed rapidly by a simple blood test, and easily treated with an inexpensive antibiotic. However, the disease may masquerade as other medical conditions, confusing even health care professionals. A delay in diagnosis and treatment may have serious medical consequences.

Syphilis – Its early history and Treatment until Penicillin and the Debate on its Origins

“If I were asked which is the most destructive of all diseases I should unhesitatingly reply, it is that which for some years has been raging with impunity … What contagion does thus invade the whole body, so much resist medical art, becomes inoculated so readily, and so cruelly tortures the patient ?” Desiderius Erasmus, 1520.