Health

Is This The End Of Syphilis?

July 17, 1998 / 3:39 PM EDT / AP

Scientists in Maryland and Texas have made a breakthrough that could lead to a vaccine against syphilis and eventual eradication of the sexually transmitted disease, according to a report published Friday in the journal Science.

Researchers at the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., and the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston said they have mapped the 1.1 million base pairs of DNA that make up the syphilis genome.

The new gene map eventually will enable researchers to more easily detect and treat syphilis, which has been a worldwide scourge for 500 years. The breakthrough should also help in developing a vaccine that will prevent infection by the microbe, according to experts.

Syphilis, which is spread through sexual intercourse, causes genital lesions that put its victims at higher risk of contracting HIV, the viral infection that causes AIDS.

It has been called the "great imitator" because it can mimic symptoms of other diseases. It can be very mild in its early stages and is often difficult to detect in blood tests.

The organism cannot live outside the human body, and research into the disease has been frustrated because it cannot be cultured in the laboratory.

"The real power of this information comes from being able to start making some comparisons at the whole genome level of bacteria," said Claire Fraser, vice president of research at the Institute for Genomic Research. "You get a much more thorough level of understanding."

"Completion of this project is an extraordinary boost for efforts to develop a protective vaccine," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the federal agency that funded the syphilis genome research.

Dr. Michael E. St. Louis and Dr. Judith N. Wasserheit of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said mapping the syphilis genome, along with other technical advances, may make it possible to eradicate the disease altogether.

Writing in Science, they called mapping the genome "a landmark project" that may lead to rapid advances in diagnosis and treatment.

Untreated, syphilis can eventually cause heart ailments, insanity and blindness, but the course of the disease may take decades and include long periods when there are few indications of disease.

In the 1930s, syphilis was considered a major U.S. public health problem.

After the introduction of penicillin, the incidence of syphilis dropped sharply. There have been periods of near eradication in the United States, followed by outbreaks in seven-to-10-year cycles. In 1997, the United States recorded 8,551 cases, a rate of about 3.2 cases per 100,000 people. During a 1990 surge of the disease, the syphilis rate was more than 20 per 100,000.

Syphilis became a worldwide problem following the first permanent European presence in the Americas afer 1492. This suggested to some experts that the disease originated in the New World, but that has never been proved.