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IRA LEO SCHAMBERG, M.D.

AMA Arch Derm. 1956;73(5):523-529.

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

Since the peak of the nationwide syphilis epidemic was reached in 1946 and 1947 the rate of new syphilitic infections has declined by 93%.^* Figure 1 demonstrates that the rate of fall is similar in the white and in the Negro, although the absolute decline is much greater in the Negro. Other indices of the level of syphilitic infection, such as military attack rates, prevalence of latent and late syphilis, mortality due to various late manifestations, and admissions to mental hospitals for syphilitic psychoses show a similar downward trend. Figures 2 and 3 demonstrate the fall in deaths under one year due to congenital syphilis, and in deaths due to paresis.

Three factors are considered to be playing a major part in the decrease in syphilis. The relative weights of these factors are not known.

1. Syphilis rises to epidemic peaks in wartime and falls off in
   

Author Affiliations
Philadelphia

From the Section of Venereal Disease Control, Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Public Health, City of Philadelphia.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication Jan. 24, 1956.

Assistant Professor of Dermatology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; Assistant Chief, Section of Venereal Disease Control, Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Public Health, City of Philadelphia.

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