British Journal of Venereal Diseases, Vol 55, Issue 2 110-115, Copyright © 1979 by Sexually Transmitted Infections
Therapeutic effect of oral doxycycline on syphilis
Y Onoda
Fifty-one patients with syphilis were treated with oral doxycycline. A
course of the antibiotic treatment consisted of 200 mg of doxycycline daily
in two divided doses for 28 days. The courses were repeated three to four
times a year with an interval of several months. Quantitative Venereal
Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL), Wassermann reaction (WR), and Treponema
pallidum haemagglutination assay (TPHA) tests were performed monthly to
evaluate the therapeutic effect of doxycycline treatment. The response rate
was 100% for primary, 90% for early, 68% for late, and 90% for congenital
syphilis in adults. No notable side effects were encountered except for
epigastric fullness in one patient, which did not require the treatment to
be discontinued. No abnormalities were detected in the results of
laboratory tests.