[Endemic syphilis in a Sahelian area of Burkina Faso. Sero-clinical survey].

In March 1981, we studied a traditional focus of endemic syphilis in a Sahelian area in North-East of Burkina-Faso. The clinical survey was conducted on a sample of 1 600 people and showed a prevalence of contagious clinical lesions of 5.6% in children and 1.8% in adults. The seroimmunological study, effected with passive haemagglutination test (T. P. H. A.), showed that 47.1% of the individuals were bearing antitreponemic specific antibodies; the seroimmunological prevalence increases with age, from 29.2% in the 5-9 years old children up to 85.2% in adults 60 years old and over. Clinical and serological prevalences are all the more important as the conditions of hygiene are worse. In comparison with the last campaigns of penicillinotherapy, conducted in 1962, a recrudescence of syphilitic endemic is to be noted.