The syphilis problem in Asir province, Saudi Arabia.

A combined national and international venereal disease team began activities in Saudi Arabia in November 1952, moving from Mecca to Asir province in May 1953, where it remained for two months examining and treating various groups of the population. A total of 309 cases of syphilis among a population of approximately 3,000 at Abha was given complete clinical and serological examination and treatment with PAM, in doses varying from 2.4 to 6.0 million units. Serological tests were made on 2,359 blood samples. Only one primary lesion was found; but secondary lesions were quite common, amounting to 5.8% of all cases treated, while tertiary lesions represented 12.6% of all cases treated and 67.2% of all clinical cases.Considerable variations in the prevalence of syphilis were noted among the different quarters of the town of Abha and among different tribes and villages. All the age-groups were more or less equally affected, but the females generally showed a higher positivity-rate than the males.All these features-together with the low social, economic, and sanitary standards of the population and many prevalent social habits, such as the use of common eating and drinking implements - would seem to indicate that the syphilis met in Asir, and locally known as "shadjar", "balash", "fringi", "mabrouk", or "wardi", should be included with the endemic treponematoses met with elsewhere in the world.