A single antibiotic pill worked just as well as penicillin shots against syphilis, giving developing countries a simple way to treat the sexually transmitted disease, a study in Tanzania finds. Syphilis patients who took the antibiotic azithromycin and those who were injected with penicillin had a cure rate of 95 percent or better.A shot of penicillin has long been the recommended treatment for syphilis. Azithromycin might be a viable alternative in poor countries, however, because there is a shortage of sterile needles and trained doctors to give the shots, the study’s researchers wrote.Results of the study led by Dr. Gabriele Riedner of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine appear in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
