[Syphilis treatment. German and international guidelines--a comparison]

Guidelines are an important instrument for improving the quality of medical care. In 2001, the German STD Society (DSTDG) published guidelines for syphilis diagnostics and treatment. For two reasons, these guidelines had to be reviewed urgently: Firstly, there is an obvious "renaissance" of syphilis among men having sex with men, which is complicated by a frequent comorbidity with HIV infection. Secondly, the standard drug for syphilis treatment in Germany, clemizole penicillin, has no longer been available since July 2003. In this article, the new German guidelines for syphilis treatment 2004, published by the DSTDG, are compared with other syphilis guidelines, which are valid for the European countries, i.e., the CDC, UK, Russian, and European guidelines 2002.