This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal

Arch Dermatol. 2000;136:278-279.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

IN OCTOBER 1998, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (MDH) was notified that a public sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic in a county (county A) had used a nonrecommended preparation to treat syphilis patients during January-October 1998. The clinic had been inadequately treating syphilis patients or syphilis contacts with Bicillin®.*

C-R (a mixture of 1.2 million units [MU] benzathine penicillin G [BPG] and 1.2 MU procaine penicillin G), rather than with Bicillin® L-A (2.4 MU BPG). Compared with short-acting procaine penicillin G, BPG has a longer half-life considered essential for effective syphilis treatment because it yields sustained spirochetecidal levels needed to treat the slowly reproducing agent of syphilis, Treponema pallidum. The inadvertent use of Bicillin C-R, which contains only half the recommended dose of BPG for syphilis, was recognized by a health-care provider at the STD clinic in a neighboring county (county B) approximately 1 month after . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Reported by:


CDC Editorial Note: