Missed Cases of Syphilis

As syphilis incidence has been declining over the past few decades, a general belief is present that it has become practically eradicated. But since the 1990s reports about local outbreaks, mostly related to men who have sex with men (MSM), have been published. In the past two years we have seen seven cases of syphilis in our proctology units that have been overlooked by other physicians. In this article a few interesting cases are presented. Not only the risk groups, but physicians as well need to be informed about the increasing incidence of syphilis. When a patient is diagnosed with a sexually transmited infection (STI) or there is a clinical suspicion that he might have one, a screening test for the most common STIs should be performed which should also include testing for syphilis.