Changing patterns of late syphilis.

THE problem of how to prevent late syphilis has been a matter of importance since the beginning in 1948 of the modern anti-V.D. campaign in Poland. To cope with this task, special examination centres, staffed by a team of specialists in the main dermatological clinics, were organized in each district and this system has proved of value in the course of the past 20 years, because it has helped to prevent late systemic changes in latent cases, and has provided early and adequate treatment for symptomatic cases. From 1948 to 1952, most of the patients who attended these clinics were persons in whose cases late syphilis had been discovered during a mass serological screening campaign. More recently the patients have been persons with late as well as early syphilis who, after a sufficient period of post-treatment follow-up, have come for a final examination by specialists.