Push to improve syphilis testing in US as disease makes dramatic comeback

Cases have risen 80% in the last five years, and the US now has the highest syphilis rates since 1950

Syphilis was until recently an anachronism to medical professionals.

The sexually transmitted infection (STI) was so common in the 19th century that it earned its own specialism - syphilology - but the advent of penicillin in the 20th century meant the disease could be easily treated, and by the 1990s syphilis had been nearly eliminated from the US.