Syphilis
Syphilis has gone by many nicknames over the years including “The Great Pretender” and “The Great Imitator.” Emily Labudde, MD, a Pediatric Emergency Medicine fellow at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and recent pediatric residency graduate from Cincinnati Children’s discusses the various manifestations of this sexually transmitted infection, and how we can’t miss this very treatable, but sneaky malady. PEMBlog @PEMTweets on… sigh “X” (Twitter) My Instagram My Mastodon account @bradsobo References Emily J. Labudde, Jane Lee; A Review of Syphilis Infection in Pediatric Patients. Pediatr Rev. July 2024; 45 (7): 373–380. https://doi.org/10.1542/pir.2023-006309 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2021.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/std/statistics/2021/default.htm. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment Guidelines 2021.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/std/treatment-guidelines/syphilis.htm. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/index.htm. Transcript Note: This transcript was partially completed with the use of the Descript AI Welcome to PEMCurrents, the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Podcast, as always, I’m your host Brad Sobolewski. Today’s episode is all about the great pretender, syphilis. And let’s face it, it’s not just a disease for Medieval royalty. It’s on the rise in the United States and abroad. So let’s talk about the manifestations and management. And I’ve got a special guest host. This is Emily Labudde, originally from Detroit, at the time of recording this episode, a third year categorical pediatric resident at Cincinnati Children’s and a soon to be pediatric emergency medicine fellow in Atlanta. I’m going to pass the mic to you, Emily. My name is Emily Labudde, and I’m a third year pediatric resident at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and I’ll be starting fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine this summer at Emory University Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Today’s podcast is going to cover acquired syphilis infection. Now, I know what you’re thinking. We don’t see a lot of syphilis in the pediatric ED. That’s what I thought, too, until I saw it, and with syphilis on the rise, it’s likely we’ll start to see more. I recently published a review article on syphilis in Pediatrics in Review, which you should check out. It is far more detailed and also covers congenital syphilis, which is beyond the scope of this episode. At the end of this podcast,