Further observations on the persistence of Treponema pallidum after treatment in rabbits and humans.

Abstract

Syphilis in humans was first treated with penicillin more than 23 years ago when four patients with darkfield-positive, sero-positive syphilis were con- sidered cured on the basis of lesion regression and serological conversion (Mahoney, Arnold, and Harris, 1943). One of these men became re-infected and was cured by repeat penicillin treatment (Mahoney, Arnold, and Harris, 1949). The use of penicillin with satisfactory clinical results spread, and by 1954 this drug was being used as the sole form of treatment of venereal syphilis and other treponematoses almost everywhere in the United States (Willcox, 1954).