The diagnosis and treatment of syphilis in women

Abstract

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted diseage with a known cause and an effective cure. Unfortunately, during the past decade syphilis has resurfaced as a major public health problem. This resurgence of cases has paralleled the rise of crack cocaine abuse and the attendant risky sexual behaviors associated with drug-seeking. Syphilis, as a leading cause of genital ulcer disease, enhances human immunodeficiency virus transmissibility. Syphilis has returned to damage our most vulnerable patients, the developing fetus and newborn. The eradication of this disease awaits the solution of the stubborn social problems of ignorance, poverty, drug abuse, and prostitution.