Seroprevalence of syphilis by VDRL test and biological false positive reactions in different patient populations: Is it alarming? Our experience from a tertiary care center in India.

This compares well with the finding of Bala et al ., in which seroprevalence of syphilis was reported to be 1.2%[ 11 ] while the overall seroprevalence of syphilis in a study from Maharashtra was found to be 0.7% (90/13,008).[ 12 ] In our study, we found that seroprevalence of syphilis by VDRL test among male patients was 5.02 (365/7278) while that in females was 0.74 (368/50,030), and the difference between the two was highly significant.( P < 0.0001) It is comparable to the report by Geusau et al .[ 13 ] Moreover, in a study conducted by Tankhiwale and Naikwade, the seroprevalence of syphilis in males and females was 1.73% (44 of 2537) and 0.4% (46 of 10414), respectively.[ 12 ] The higher seroprevalence of syphilis in males could be because of the fact that only the suspected patients or high-risk patients or patients attending STI clinic are usually tested for syphilis serology.

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