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Syphilitic hepatitis: an increasingly common presentation of an epidemic disease

Matthew Smale, William R Connell and Julien D Schulberg
Med J Aust 2021; 215 (4): . || doi: 10.5694/mja2.51191
Published online: 16 August 2021

To the Editor: The incidence of syphilis is dramatically rising in Australia. As such, previously rare sequelae like syphilitic hepatitis are occurring more frequently, supported by a growing number of case reports in the literature.1 We present a typical case of syphilitic hepatitis and review the evolving at‐risk populations, to raise awareness of this potentially fatal yet highly treatable disease.


  • St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne, VIC


Correspondence: matthew.smale@svha.org.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

  • 1. Huang J, Lin S, Wan B, et al. A systematic literature review of syphilitic hepatitis in adults. J Clin Transl Hepatol 2018; 6: 306–309.
  • 2. Kirby Institute. HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia: annual surveillance report 2018. Sydney: Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, 2018. https://kirby.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/kirby/report/KI_Annual-Surveillance-Report-2018.pdf (viewed Nov 2020).
  • 3. Feher J, Somogyi T, Timmer M, et al. Syphilitic hepatitis: clinical, immunological and morphological aspects. Acta Med Acad Sci Hung 1975; 32: 155–161.
  • 4. Manavi K, Dhasmana D, Cramb R. Prevalence of hepatitis in early syphilis among an HIV cohort. Int J STD AIDS 2012; 23: 4–6.
  • 5. Hook E. Syphilis. Lancet 2017; 389: 1550–1557.

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