J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  1980 Dec;21(4):549-551.

A Case of Acute Interstitial Keratitis with Congenital Syphilis

• Kim HB
• Park YS
• Kim SU

Abstract

Since the time of Jonathan Hutchinson(1858~63), it has been known that over 90% of cases of diffuse interstitial keratitis occur in syphilitic patients. Interstitial keratitis is due to acquired syphilis in 4% of cases and the other 6% of cases due to tuberculosis, sarcoid, trypanosomiasis, onchocerciasis and other rare infections. After the introduction of penicillin by Mahoney et al. in 1943 for syphilis therapy, syphilis epidemy was sharply decreased throughout the world. However, during the middle 1950's the incidence of syphilis began to increase throughout the world. In Korea. the syphilis incidence has been increased since around 1963-1965 in parallel with the world trends(Kim and Lew 1968). A 6 year old Korean girl has been found to have bilateral acute interstitial keratitis and a positive serological test for syphilis.

MeSH Terms

Child
Female
Humans
Incidence
Keratitis*
Korea
Onchocerciasis
Penicillins
Serologic Tests
Syphilis
Syphilis, Congenital*
Trypanosomiasis
Tuberculosis
Penicillins