Tag Archives: Syphilis

February 2023—Traditional algorithm? Or reverse? Elitza Theel, PhD, D(ABMM), of Mayo Clinic, in an AACC session last year walked through the two primary diagnostic algorithms for syphilis, explaining where the complexities lie and how her laboratory uncovered inappropriate testing for neurosyphilis.

September 2019—The results of a clinical trial of a rapid assay for dual detection of HIV and syphilis were reported at the 2019 HIV Diagnostics Conference in March. If approved by the FDA, where it has been under consideration since 2018, the Chembio Diagnostic Systems assay would be the first point-of-care assay of its kind on the U.S. market.

November 2017—Syphilis is making a comeback. Nearly 28,000 cases of primary and secondary syphilis, the most infectious stages of the disease, were reported in the U.S. in 2016—a 17.6 percent jump over 2015 and the highest reported rate since 1993. Cumbersome, subjective nontreponemal assays and the lack of a gold standard screening method lend complexity to the diagnostic process. But new nontreponemal assay options, including the first FDA-cleared fully automated treponemal/nontreponemal dual assay, may help stem the rising tide.