Current Trends of Acquired Syphilis among STD Attendees in a Tertiary Care Centre during a Period of One Year

INTRODUCTION Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema pallidum, characterize by florid manifestations on one hand and years of complete asymptomatic latency on the other hand. Clinical pattern of acquired syphilis are changing in South India with significant regional variation. AIM To study the current trends of acquired syphilis among STD attendees in a tertiary care centre. METHODS & MATERIALS Retrospective analysis of all STD O. P attendees diagnosed as syphilis using blood VDRL and serum TPHA from October 2015 to September 2016 was done. Epidemiological, clinical, serological data recorded were analysed, for current trends of acquired syphilis in our centre. OBSERVATIONS During the study period, among the total 15986 cases, 9834 were males, 6129 were females and 23 were Transgender. A total of 429 patients were VDRL Reactive of which 45 (10.4 %) were false positive and TPHA was reactive in 384 cases. Totally 384 cases (13.4 %) were diagnosed as syphilis out of 2865 STD cases. Among this 281 (73.1 %) were males, 99 (25.7 %) females and 4 (1.04 %) were transgender. Primary syphilis was diagnosed in 32 (8.3 %) cases, secondary syphilis in 45 (11.7 %) and latent syphilis in 307 (80 %). No case of neurosyphilis and cardiovascular syphilis were noted. Co infections were detected in 27 (7 %) patients.32 (8.3 %) patients were HIV positive. CONCLUSION Prevalence of acquired syphilis was 13.4 % in our study. Latent syphilis is on the rise and is becoming more common than primary or secondary syphilis. Thus the epidemiological trends have changed over the years.