RESUMO
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: An increase in syphilis infections since the mid 1990s has been documented, especially in homosexual men, in different European and North American cities. We intended to describe the characteristics of newly diagnosed cases of syphilis at the Sexually Transmitted Infections Unit of Barcelona in 2002 and 2003. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Descriptive analysis of cases with infectious syphilis and multivariate analysis of factors associated with HIV coinfection. RESULTS: 102 cases were diagnosed with infectious syphilis, 98 males (88 homosexual men). HIV coinfection was present in 34% of cases. Predictive factors of HIV coinfection were age > 30 years (p = 0.003) and having a HIV positive partner (p = 0.044). Clinically, there were no differences between cases coinfected or not with HIV. CONCLUSIONS: There has been a recent increase of syphilis in Barcelona, especially among some core groups of homosexual men with high rates of HIV coinfection.