A 26-Year-Old Man Presenting With Loss of Vision, Skin Lesions, and Wasting

January 2012 in “ Médecine et Maladies Infectieuses ”

Catherine Chakvetadze, J.‐B. Monfort, N. Dupin, A. Carlotti, Boon Kay Tan, P. Grange, L. Guillevin, Dominique Salmon‐Céron

hair loss skin lesions secondary syphilis neurosyphilis Treponema pallidum penicillin treatment

TLDR The man's symptoms improved significantly after penicillin treatment for syphilis.

A 26-year-old man with HIV presented with symptoms including vision and hearing loss, skin lesions, weight loss, and complete body hair loss. He was diagnosed with secondary syphilis and neurosyphilis, confirmed by positive VDRL and PCR tests for Treponema pallidum. After a 3-week high-dose penicillin treatment, his symptoms, including skin lesions and hair loss, improved significantly. The case highlighted the rare concomitance of these symptoms in syphilis, particularly in an HIV-positive patient, and underscored the importance of considering syphilis in differential diagnoses for similar presentations.

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