Need for syphilis screening and counselling in HIV counselling and testing centres: a curtain raiser study from north India.
BACKGROUND
Voluntary counselling and testing centres (VCTC) are important HIV screening points for the population with suspicion or apprehension for HIV, because of high-risk exposures. Theoretically, these are also at the risk of having co-infections, commonest being syphilis. The present short-term study was aimed at knowing the sero-reactivity of syphilis among a study cohort attending the VCTC in King George's Medical University, Lucknow, India.


METHODS
During a 2.5-month period, 49 HIV-positive and 171 HIV-negative sera were tested for venereal disease research laboratory (VDRL). The positive sera were further tested for treponema pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA).


RESULTS
Eleven (22.4%) HIV-positive sera and 104 (60.8%) HIV-negative sera were VDRL-reactive (>or=1:8 dilutions). Of these, TPHA was reactive in three (27.3%) and four (3.9%), respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The result might suggest the need for routine screening and counselling for syphilis at VCTC. Studies from other centres on larger population are required.
Nag
Vijaya Lakshmi
VL
Department of Microbiology, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow, India. nagranjan@gmail.com
Dash
Nihar Ranjan
NR
Pathak
Ashutosh
A
Agarwal
Surendra Kumar
SK