Sífilis e infección por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana: una endemia en hombres que tienen sexo con hombres.

Abstract

Objective: to analyse epidemiological, clinical, and analytical features of HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM) diagnosed with syphilis in the Infectious Diseases Unit (Hospital Virgen de la Victoria, Málaga, Spain) during 2004-2013.

Patients and methods: An observational study was conducted on 196 syphilis episodes in 167 MSM infected with HIV (2004-2013). Epidemiological, clinical, and analytical data were collected. Annual syphilis incidence among HIV-MSM is calculated as the number of syphilis episodes among MSM in one year divided by the number of MSM followed up in that year.

Results: Incidence ranged from 1.2% (2007) to 7.8% (2012). There were asymptomatic episodes in 42.8% cases, and an HIV-syphilis coincident diagnosis in 28.5%.

Conclusions: The annual incidence of syphilis has increased within HIV infected MSM. One third of the syphilis episodes were simultaneous to HIV diagnosis and near half of them were asymptomatic.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Epidemiología; Hombres que tienen sexo con hombres; Human immunodeficiency virus; Infecciones de transmisión sexual; Men who have sex with men; Sexually-transmitted infections; Syphilis; Sífilis; Treponema pallidum; Virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana.