Antibiotic Treatment of Venereal Disease and Reiter's Syndrome in a Greenland Population

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of antibiotic treatment of urethritis or cervicitis on the incidence of recurrences of articular symptoms in Reiter's syndrome patients. METHODS: Retrospective evaluation of the medical charts of 109 patients living in Greenland. RESULTS: Thirty-seven percent of the episodes of genitourinary tract inflammation that were not treated or were treated with penicillin were followed by arthritis, compared with 10% of those treated with tetracycline or erythromycin. CONCLUSION: Antibiotics active against Chlamydia trachomatis reduced the risk of postvenereal arthritis in the population studied.