Moth-Eaten Symptomatic Syphilitic Alopecia Associated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus: A Case Report
January 2016
in “
Case Reports in Clinical Medicine
”
TLDR Hair loss in HIV patients should be tested for syphilis as well.
The document from 2016 reported a case of a 46-year-old Japanese homosexual man who had symptomatic syphilitic alopecia (SA), a rare skin manifestation in secondary syphilis, complicated by HIV infection. The patient experienced hair loss and other symptoms, which were initially misdiagnosed as atopic dermatitis. However, serological tests revealed increased titers for syphilis and positive results for HIV-1. The patient was treated with ampicillin, leading to rapid improvement and hair regrowth. The study concluded that due to the high incidence of syphilis in HIV-infected individuals, serologic tests for both syphilis and HIV are recommended for patients experiencing hair loss.
