Ocular Syphilis Acquired from a Common Partner

The protean manifestations of syphilis include ocular infection, which can progress to vision loss if not identified and treated early. Public health investigators in Michigan report five women with visual complaints attributable to syphilis infection over a 5-month period; all identified the same male sex partner. The likely source partner had been seen for genital ulcers several weeks before the first woman presented with visual complaints but was not evaluated for syphilis. No genomic information on this Treponema pallidum strain was available to link the cases.