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Venereal Disease I: Syphilis

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Antibiotic and Antifungal Therapies in Dermatology

Abstract

Only about 15 years ago, the low numbers of new syphilis cases had nourished the hope that this disease was close to eradication in the developed countries. However, since the turn of the millennium, a worldwide surge of syphilis has been reported. Currently an estimated ten million patients are annually infected with T. pallidum worldwide. Despite the use of penicillin as the drug of choice for treating the different stages of syphilis for over six decades, no resistance has been reported, and this old antibiotic is the recommended as first-line treatment. Here we will give an overview of the diagnosis of syphilis, its clinical manifestation at the different disease stages, and the established treatment regimens.

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Correspondence to Erwin Tschachler .

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Tschachler, E., Tiplica, GS. (2016). Venereal Disease I: Syphilis. In: Ólafsson, J., Hay, R. (eds) Antibiotic and Antifungal Therapies in Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39424-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39424-4_4

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