DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS IN PATIENTS COINFECTED WITH HUMAN IMMUNODEFICIENCY

Abstract

A review article is addressed the issue of the diagnosis and treatment of syphilis that is developing against the background of HIV infection. A small number of HIV-infected patients may have false-negative or false-positive serological tests for syphilis. Patients with co-infection are at higher risk of the nervous system involvement as well as ocular and otological syphilis. The cases of treatment failure and neurorelapses are also more frequent in HIV-positive patients with syphilis. The effectiveness of neurosyphilis treatment in co-infected patients is difficult to assess, as the normalization of the CSF in HIV-positives is going slower comparing to HIV-negatives. The inevitable increase in incidence of syphilis and HIV co-infection is anticipated in the coming years. In this regard, a comprehensive study of the co-infection problem and improvement of approaches to managing patients based on the principles of evidence-based medicine is required.