Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 6, Issue 11, 14 March 2002

Contact tracing is an important part of tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control in low incidence countries (1,2). It aims primarily to identify individuals with latent or active TB who have been in contact with patients with infectious TB so that appropriate preventive or curative treatment can be given.

Syphilis related morbidity has decreased since the second world war, primarily as a result of the introduction of penicillin. This also meant a decrease in the occurrence of neurosyphilis. In England and Wales, 32 patients died from syphilis in 1974, compared with four in 1995 (1).