Clinicopathological features of secondary syphilis in a human immunodeficiency virus-infected teenager

Abstract

Syphilis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are both sexually transmitted diseases that affect the same risk group practices, which make co-infection common. Syphilis-infected individuals typically follow a disease course divided into primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary stages. Atypical manifestations, fulminant presentation, serological irregularities, and treatment failures appear more frequently in HIV-seropositive patients. We present the case of a 15-year-old boy with a penicillin allergy who developed dermatological and systemic manifestations in which laboratorial and histopathological studies corresponded to a syphilis-HIV co-infection with a positive response to treatment.

Keywords

• dermatopathology
• human inmunodeficiency virus
• secondary syphilis