An important theme that emerges from all early historical accounts is that in addition to the decreased virulence of Treponema pallidum, the incidence of secondary syphilis has decreased drastically over the past three centuries. Even in the early 20th century, most syphilologists were of the opinion that the disease had undergone changes in its manifestations and that they were dealing with an attenuated form of the spirochete. Such opinions were based primarily on the observations that violent cutaneous reactions and fatalities associated with the secondary stage had become extremely rare. The rate of primary and secondary syphilis in the United States increased in 2002 for the second consecutive year. After a decade-long decline that led to an all-time low in 2000, the recent trend is attributable, to a large extent, by a increase in reported syphilis cases among men, particularly homosexual and bisexual men having sex with men. The present review addresses the clinical and diagnostic criteria for the recognition of secondary syphilis, the clinical course and manifestations of the disease if allowed to proceed past the primary stage of disease in untreated individuals, and the treatment for this stage of the disease

Available pneumococcal vaccines provide only limited protection for certain at-risk populations. Fifteen healthy young adults and 11 older chronic bronchitics received 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine. ELISA showed that IgG reactive with capsular polysaccharides from Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes 3, 4, 8, 14, and 19F increased after vaccination. Bronchitics exhibited lesser responses for four of these serotypes, although differences between the groups were significant only for serotype 3. Adsorption of postvaccination sera with pneumococcal cell wall polysaccharide significantly reduced mean antibody levels in both groups and lowered the proportion of sera that demonstrated type-specific antibody responses. Reactive IgG was largely restricted to the IgG2 subclass. Pneumococcal vaccine may provide suboptimal protection of older adults because antibody responses to some capsular polysaccharides are lower in elderly bronchitics than in healthy young adults. A substantial proportion of measured antibody reflects IgG reactive with cell wall polysaccharides rather than with type-specific, capsular constituents, suggesting that antibody responses in subjects of all ages deserve reappraisal.

To investigate the protective effects of pneumococcal vaccine, we assayed serum from healthy adults and from elderly bronchitics for antibody and opsonic activity against nine serotypes of S. pneumoniae. Before vaccination, there was no relation between opsonization and the level of antibody measured by RIA. Some serotypes were well opsonized in the absence of detectable antibody to capsular polysaccharide; others were not, despite modest levels of antibody. These in vitro studies did not support the concept that a certain level of antibody (e.g., greater than or equal to 250 ng of antibody nitrogen/ml) was specifically associated with the capacity to opsonize pneumococci. Nearly all postvaccination sera had increased antibody and opsonic activity against all serotypes, but the lack of correlation in any individual serum persisted. RIA showed that pre- and postvaccination levels of antibody in elderly adults with chronic lung disease were similar to those of younger adults. In elderly bronchitics, opsonizing activity for six of the nine serotypes was lower after vaccination, a result of suggesting a possible explanation for the failure of pneumococcal vaccine to be fully protective in these subjects. Elderly subjects had higher levels of antibody to phosphocholine, but when isolated, this antibody did not opsonize any of the vaccine strains of pneumococci. These results suggest that alternative strategies are needed to maximize the protective effect of pneumococcal vaccine in the population at greatest risk.

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