Comorbidity of STDs

A 16-year-old African-American female presented with a 4-week history of intermittent fever, night sweats, and bilateral upper quadrant abdominal pain, bifrontal headache, left eye pain, pruritic rash on arms and chest, 7-kg weight loss, and 2-week history of pain with defecation and urination coincident with the development of perineal ulcers. Her past medical history is unremarkable. Chest x-ray showed bilateral interstitial nodular densities. The laboratory tests that returned positive were herpes simplex culture of the genital ulcer, rapid plasma reagin (1:32), microhemagglutination-Treponema pallidum test, and HIV ELISA and Western blot tests. Open lung biopsy was positive for Histoplasma capsulatum. Syphilis, herpes simplex type II, and HIV infection were all transmitted sexually from a single (and first) sexual encounter a year before admission.