Assessment of syphilis in patients treated for tuberculosis in a reference service of western São Paulo

There is evidence of clinical manifestations associated with coinfection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other intracellular microorganisms, such as Treponema pallidum, however, studies evaluating tuberculosis/syphilis coinfection during antituberculosis treatment are still scarce. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of tuberculosis/syphilis coinfection in patients treated at a reference service in the Western of São Paulo. To this end, patients with tuberculosis (n=35), over 18 years of age and both sexes, were evaluated. The prevalence of syphilis was assessed by treponemal and non-treponemal tests. Patients were grouped according to the duration of antituberculosis treatment into three groups: T1 (1 and 2 months), T2 (3 and 4 months) and T3 (5 and 6 months). For clinical evaluation, data from medical records were used. A descriptive analysis of the characteristics of patients was carried out with the presence of markers for syphilis and the tuberculosis/syphilis association using the Fisher and Mann-Whitney tests (p<0.05). It was demonstrated that seven (20%) patients evaluated presented anti-T. pallidum antibodies, of which only two (5.71%) presented titers suggestive of active syphilis. One patient presented characteristics suggestive of a more serious disease, such as a high number of crosses for AFB testing (3+) and the presence of pulmonary cavitation. We found that patients with tuberculosis have a high prevalence of anti-T. pallidum, however, a low prevalence of active syphilis. We suggest that the presence of co-infection may be related to a worse tuberculosis prognosis.