Syphilis

Reinfection or treatment failure, how do they tell?

Titre went down after treatment and has now gone up again. How do they work out which of the two it is?

cold_start 2 months ago

NoteMember experience, not medical advice. Symptoms overlap between infections and only a test can tell them apart.

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greytide 2 months ago

Largely by the size of the change and by your history. A sustained fourfold rise is the thing that signals either reinfection or failure, rather than small movements.

After that it is the ordinary questions: has there been a new exposure since treatment, was the original course completed, was the partner treated.

kettle_on 2 months ago

Be straightforward about exposures even if it is awkward. Reinfection is by far the more common of the two, and if they do not know about a new partner they are left investigating the rarer explanation.

riverbank9 2 months ago

In practice they often treat again either way, because the treatment is the same and the risk of leaving it is worse than the risk of an extra course. Ask them to say plainly what they think happened, though. You are entitled to the reasoning.

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