Developments in Brief : Syphilis With AIDS: Peril, Difficulty Cited

Syphilis may be especially dangerous and hard to treat in people infected with the AIDS virus, according to two reports in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The studies found an association between the acquired immune deficiency syndrome virus and syphilis’ invasion of the brain. Doctors said neurosyphilis, whose symptoms include headaches, dizziness, paralysis and insanity, may be the first sign of AIDS in some infected people.

In people who are also infected with the AIDS virus, ordinary doses of drugs may not work, according to Dr. Donald R. Johns and his colleagues from Massachusetts General Hospital.

In an accompanying editorial in the same journal, Dr. Edmund C. Tramont of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recommended that everyone infected with the AIDS virus be screened for syphilis and that all those with syphilis be tested to see if they are infected by the AIDS virus.