Syphilis

Disease development

Effects of syphilis before penicillin, 1890s.

Destruction of skull bones in tertiary syphilis.

Treatment

1917: Malaria Therapy

At the beginning of the 20th century, patients were infected with malaria to cure syphilis.

Malaria causes a very high temperature that kills syphilis bacteria. But then the patients were treated for malaria. There were no antibiotics at the time and syphilis was a direct threat to life.

Malaria therapy was developed by Julius Wagner-Jauregg, who in 1917 first vaccinated malaria in patients suffering from progressive paralysis. For the development of this therapy, Wagner-Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1927. Wagner-Jauregg also used malaria therapy to treat syphilis, neurosyphilis, multiple sclerosis, and schizophrenia.

Diagnostics

2021: World's first combined HIV, hepatitis and syphilis tests launched in Russia

At the end of April 2021, the production of the world's first combined test for four infections began in Russia: HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis. Test systems called "Multiskrin" are produced by the company "Biopalitra," which is a resident of the special economic zone "St. Petersburg." Read more here.

Researches

1948: US scientists deliberately infect Guatemalan citizens with syphilis and gonorrhea

In 2010, US President Barack Obama deeply apologized over the phone to the President of Guatemala for the fact that in the 1940s, American scientists deliberately infected syphilis and gonorrhea of Guatemalan prisoners, mentally ill and military personnel - in order to study ways to treat sexually transmitted diseases with penicillin. As a result, about one and a half thousand people were injured - including prostitutes used in the experiment (and not knowing about it).