10/21/2016 Brief History of Syphilis J Med Life. 2014 Mar 15; 7(1): 4–10. PMCID: PMC3956094 Published online 2014 Mar 25. Brief History of Syphilis M Tampa,* I Sarbu,** C Matei,* V Benea,** and SR Georgescu* * Dermatology Department, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest ** Dermatology Department, ”Victor Babes” Hospital for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, Bucharest Correspondence to:Mircea Tampa, MD, PhD, Assistant Lecturer Sos. Mihai Bravu 281, 3rd District, Bucharest, Romania email:
[email protected] phone: 0726382600 Received 2013 Sep 14; Accepted 2014 Jan 14. Copyright ©Carol Davila University Press This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Abstract Before the discovery of Treponema pallidum as the etiologic agent, the origins of syphilis have been the subject of several debates. Diverse therapeutic agents were employed in an attempt to cure the disease. Examining the milestones in the history of syphilis, the present article reviews the existing theories that tried to explain the origins of the disease, the approach in art, the cultural and the evolution of the treatments from the empiric means to the discovery of penicillin. Keywords: syphilis, syphilis treatment, history of syphilis Introduction Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema Pallidum, a bacterium classified under Spirochaets phylum, Spirochaetales order, Spirochaetaceae family, but there are at least three more known species causing human treponemal diseases such as Treponema pertenue that causes yaws, Treponema carateum causing pinta and Treponema pallidum endemicumresponsible for bejel or endemic syphilis.