Occurrence of late syphilis in untreated syphilitic patients.

Abstract

In Poland the introduction of modern methods of venereal disease control, based on a new epidemiological and clinical approach, has reduced the incidence of syphilis from fifty per 10,000 of population in 1947 to 0 97 in 1955. The prevention of late latent and seemingly latent syphilis so prevalent in Poland forms part of the general campaign against the disease and its consequences. Patients were found by mass serological examinations, pre-natal and pre-employment examinations, voluntary control examinations, and in other ways. The majority had no complaints and their general health was good but provision was made to enable those with latent syphilis to undergo, free of cost, all the tests and examinations necessary to establish a precise and complete diagnosis, i.e. chest x ray, examination by a physician, a neurologist, and an oculist, and finally an examination of the cerebrospinal fluid. To cope with this task special examination centres, each staffed by a team of specialists, were organized in all parts of the country. The results of the specialist examinations and of the spinal fluid tests, together with the case histories, were scrutinized by a highly-qualified syphilologist who decided the course of further treatment where it was deemed necessary. In this way much interesting clinical material was obtained and a special department for the study of late syphilis has been created in the Institute of Dermatology and Venereology.