The likelihood that these two spirochete infections,
syphilis and Lyme disease, correlate with the establishment
of permanent human-spirochete symbioses soon after entry
of the bacteria into tissue has been insufficiently
investigated. It is reported that reverse transcriptases and
virus-like particles are generally abundant in cyclical
symbioses and it is suggested that they may facilitate the
integration of the association of the partners (Ryan, 2007).
Our intent is to improve and expand awareness of the
relationship between spirochetoses and symptoms
associated with immune suppression. We posit that the
spirochete disease syphilis persists in the human population
where its signs and symptoms may be overlooked or
misinterpreted for those of AIDS.
There may be many new drugs, but these two
spirochetoses, syphilis and Lyme disease, are not new.
Long-term association of symbiotic bacteria in animal
tissue tends toward massive gene loss when compared to
related bacteria that live freely in water, sand or mud. The
fact that Treponema pallidum and Borrelia burgdorferi are
no longer free-living and have lost many genes implies that
these spirochetes have long co-evolved with mammals (and
arthropods in the case of tick-borne Borrelia burgdorferi
Lyme disease). Contrast these integrated symbionts to
strains of Leptospira that live freely in rivers, streams and
coastal ocean waters that cause acute infection. Compared
to the fully genome-sequenced Leptospira interrogans
spirochete, over 80% of the genome of T. pallidum when
cultivated in vitro is absent. Dependency of T. pallidum on
the gene products of the human has rendered it incapable of
independent survival, growth or reproduction. Indeed
Borrelia burgdorferi has lost relatively even more of its
genophore (prokaryote “chromosome”) genes than
T. pallidum.
[...]
“Far from eradicating syphilis, antibiotics are driving
the disease underground and increasing the difficulty of
detection. Although the incidence of disease has more than
tripled since 1955, the chancre and secondary rash no
longer are commonly seen. Undoubtedly, some of these
lesions are being suppressed and the disease masked by the
indiscriminate use of antibiotics. The ominous prospect of a
widespread resurgence of the disease in its tertiary forms
looms ahead” (Pereyra and Voller, 1970).
[...]
A three-decade-long gap ushered in by the touted "cure
of penicillin" separates physicians today from the bulk of
medical literature on “the great imitator”. T. pallidum
symbiosis may help explain the high correlation of the
presence of viruses, pneumonias, other opportunistic
infections and the general symptoms of immune
suppression so well described in the "old syphilology"
medical literature (Colman Jones
www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/Aids/aidsspin.html). We suspect
that many patients carry the latent disease that has become
invisible because of the "syphilization effect" and
misdiagnosis.
T. pallidum spirochetes that cover themselves with
human proteins to which people make antibodies (Radolf
and Lukehart, 2006) cause "autoimmune diseases".
[...]
Since the research group of Luc Montagnier first
described LAV “virus-like particles” (later called “HIV-1”)
from “Patient 1”, a close connection has been shown
between AIDS and a history of syphilis in multi-partner
men (Barre-Sinoussi et al., 1983). “Patient 1” sought
medical consultation for swollen lymph nodes, muscle
weakness without fever or weight loss, and for episodes of
gonorrhea. He did not have AIDS. He had been previously
treated for syphilis, but was he cured? Patient 1 tested
positive for antibodies to three viruses: cytomegalovirus
(CMV), Epstein-Barr virus and Herpes simplex. The first
“HIV isolate” reported by Montagnier's group was from
Patient 1. Since Montagnier's work, many centers that used
immunological tests not sensitive for all stages of syphilis
have documented a close relationship between a history of
treponematoses and HIV/AIDS (Veugelers et al., 1992;
Renzullo et al., 1991; Blocker et al., 2000). Chronic
syphilitics and AIDS patients, those unmistakably ill and
immune suppressed, do not succumb to HIV or syphilis
directly. They die of reactivation tuberculosis (TB) and
ubiquitous mycobacterium avium intracellulare (MAI
group) diarrhea, and emaciation associated with refractory
bowel infections in emaciated homosexuals and in immune
compromised patients generally. TB and other myco-
bacteria correlate with amoebic dysentery. Death
records report causes as Pneumocystis carini pneumonia,
Entamoeba histolytica, Candida albicans or other
“opportunistic infection” (Coulter, 1987).
In sub-Saharan
Africa, the historic overuse of antibiotics and malnutrition
also contribute to immune suppression. One of us (John
Scythes) reports that he has not found a single documented
case of an immune suppressed patient, whether HIV-
positive or -negative, who has died of complications of
syphilis since HIV records began being maintained in the
early 1980s. Is it possible that the narrow focus on "HIV as
the cause of AIDS", an example of scientific "misplaced
concreteness" typical in explanation of evolution (Cobb,
2008), has facilitated missed diagnosis of syphilis?
Indeed, investigators in Toronto and San Francisco
found an inverse relationship between treponemal antibody
and AIDS symptoms that could be interpreted as the
immune deficiency typical of disseminated syphilis
(MacFadden et al., 1989; Haas et al., 1990; Fralick et al.,
1994).
Contrary to the statements on many official government
and medical websites that "syphilis is easily curable by
antibiotics", the disease is often refractory to antibiotic and
other treatments except perhaps in very early immuno-
responsive stages (Musher et al., 1990). It has not been
adequately shown that T. pallidum infection in its
secondary and later stages is curable after any therapy.
Because the lesions of secondary and tertiary syphilis are
autoimmune, there is often an inability to react to a skin test
of the delayed type. A loss of specificity against syphilis
antigens is noted. Chronicity, or changes in immune
response with time well established in spirochetoses is
common to other infections: herpes viruses, tuberculosis
and symptoms attributed to HIV. Syphilis, both early ulcers
and the later immunoregulation problems, seems to
facilitate acquisition of opportunistic bacteria, viruses,
fungi and the progression to full-blown collapse of the
immune system (Scythes and Jones, 2006).
Not joking. 
