Dear Colleagues,

The global epidemic of syphilis began in the late 15th century and is resurging 600 years later. Despite the availability of diagnostic tests and a mostly effective single dose treatment for early disease, syphilis remains an ascending global public health problem. In developed countries, there is a high incidence among men who have sex with men. In developing nations, syphilis continues to be a leading cause of preventable stillbirth and neonatal death.

With available diagnostic tests and a cure, and no known animal or environmental reservoir, syphilis should be an ideal disease for global elimination. Indeed, a handful of countries have demonstrated success in elimination of mother to child transmission of syphilis. In the clinic, however, the myriad manifestations of disease make diagnosis problematic. In the laboratory, the spirochaete Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum (T. pallidum), the causative agent of syphilis, evaded in vitro cultivation until very recently. With few surface markers for detection and elimination by the immune system, our understanding of its pathogenic mechanisms remain somewhat limited.

For this Special Issue of Pathogens, we invite authors to submit articles covering multiple aspects of syphilis, including, but not limited to pathogenesis, co-infection, re-infection, improvements in diagnostics and treatment, vaccine development, global health, epidemiology in the background of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 epidemic, advocacy, response of healthcare systems, education, and public health preparedness.

Dr. Anu Chaudhary
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pathogens is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• syphilis
• stillbirth
• vaccine
• pathogenesis
• epidemiology