TY - JOUR AU - Madi, Deepak AU - Achappa, Basavaprabhu AU - Vernakar, Poonam AU - Bhaskaran, Unnikrishnan AU - Ramapuram, John T AU - Mahalingam, Soundarya PY - 2015/06/11 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Prevalence of Syphilis among People living with HIV (PLHIV) attending a tertiary care hospital in coastal south India JF - Asian Journal of Medical Sciences JA - Asian J Med Sci VL - 6 IS - 6 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.3126/ajms.v6i6.11623 UR - https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/AJMS/article/view/11623 SP - 77-79 AB - <p><strong>Background: </strong>Syphilis and HIV are both transmitted sexually so people can be infected with both diseases. Co-infection of syphilis and HIV alters the course of both the diseases. Venereal disease research laboratory (VDRL) test is a non-treponemal test, used commonly in Antiretroviral Therapy Centres (ART) in India to detect syphilis. The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of syphilis in HIV-infected patients attending a tertiary care hospital using VDRL test.</p> <p><strong>Materials and Methods: </strong>Using a cross-sectional study design 113 HIV positive patients were included. VDRL test was used to screen for syphilis. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 11.5.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong>: Among the 113 patients screened 69(61%) were males and 44(39%) were females. Majority of the patients had acquired the disease through heterosexual transmission (92.9%). VDRL test was negative in all 113 patients.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The seroprevalence of syphilis in coastal South India using VDRL is very less. Specific tests like Fluorescent Treponemal Antibody Absorption test (FTA-ABS) or Treponema pallidum hemagglutination Assay (TPHA) would be beneficial to detect asymptomatic syphilis in ART centers.</p><p><span>DOI:&nbsp;</span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i5.11945"><span>http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i6.11623</span></a><span>&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span>Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.6(6) 2015 77-79</span></p> ER -