[Economic aspects of serologic syphilis tests in routine screening in Viennese hospital facilities]

971, 786 patients in Viennese municipal hospitals were routinely screened by serological testing for syphilis between January 1980 and December 1984, leading to the detection of 28,090 cases of untreated latent infection. The annual incidence varied between 7463 and 4623 cases. Roughly one third of patients with untreated syphilis develop severe late manifestations: 10.4% show cardiovascular involvement, 6.5% get neurosyphilis and 15.8% have a gumma. The mortality rate is 85% in cardiovascular disease and 64% in neurosyphilis, whilst irreversible incapacity is the fate of the remaining 15% and 36% of these patients, respectively. Calculations on the basis of the current costs for treatment of the acute diseased and for nursing of incapacitated patients reveal that routine screening of all in- and out-patients of the Viennese municipal hospitals is completely justified from the medical and the economic point of view and should, therefore, be reinforced.