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A preliminary study to characterize patients diagnosed with syphilis attending a tertiary care centre in South India

SUSMITHA KARUNASREE P JAMESGNANAKAN

Abstract


Syphilis is a common sexually transmitted
infection caused by Treponema pallidum.
The infection passes through distinct primary,
secondary, latent and tertiary stages
and these stages have implications in diagnosis
and treatment. Serological tests
are the mainstay in diagnosis and follow
up of syphilis. The study was conducted to
determine the current scenario of syphilis
in a 2400 bedded tertiary care centre in
south India. Ninety seven syphilis patients
confirmed by the Treponema pallidum hemagglutination
test (TPHA) were identified
from the laboratory records from the years
2011 to 2013. Electronic medical records
of the patients were sought to gather information
on clinical details and coexisting
sexually transmitted infections.Males were
predominant in number. From the patient
records available, latent stage was found
to be a more common stage at presentation
to the hospital followed by neurosyphilis.
There was one case of fetal death
in a syphilis patient brought with eclampsia
to the labor room and one case of congenital
syphilis which was lost to follow
up. Other virus borne sexually transmitted
infections like HIV, Hepatitis B and C were
seen in 16 patients from details available
on 78 patients. HIV was the commonest
among the three. Syphilis is still prevalent
and individuals at risk need to be identified
and screened. Antenatal screening
and appropriate therapy has reduced fetal
loss to a large extent in pregnancy. Other
agents of bacterial and viral etiology
should also be screened for when the patient
is diagnosed with syphilis or any
sexually transmitted infection.


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