Patients With HIV & Syphilis
Despite the absence of data to support the practice, overtreatment of early syphilis in persons with concomitant HIV infection is likewise common. Anecdotes and case series have been utilized to support suggestions that HIV-coinfected persons with early syphilis be treated with prolonged courses of benzathine penicillin. However, a randomized clinical trial[20] has not demonstrated significantly increased failure rates in HIV co-infected syphilis patients when compared with syphilis patients without HIV. Early syphilis treatment regimens remain the same for persons with and without HIV infection. Follow-up is particularly important in these patients, however, as non-treponemal test titers can take longer to decline. Earlier consideration of CSF examination in suspected treatment failures is recommended as well.[17]
Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2013;11(8):839-843. © 2013 Expert Reviews Ltd.
