Combo Therapy Helps Syphilis Treatment

HIVers coinfected with syphilis are much less likely to experience syphilis treatment failure if they are on antiretroviral therapy, according to a study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine examined data from a cohort of HIV patients who were diagnosed with the second STD between 1990 and 2006. They found that antiretroviral drugs that reversed immunosuppression also lowered the risk of syphilis treatment failure by 60%. Untreated HIVers with CD4-cell counts below 200 faced the highest risks for treatment failure.