Reply to: “Incidence of Jarisch–Herxheimer reaction after syphilis treatment and the role of awareness effect”
Hung-Chin Tsai · 2026
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Description
Hung-Chin Tsai replies to commenters about a fever reaction that can follow syphilis treatment in a 2026 letter. The exchange concerns his study of a blood marker, APOC3, that may predict absence of the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction. Commenters reported more reactions after giving patients fuller pretreatment explanations, based on six patients.
Tsai notes all six did run real fevers, so a pure expectation effect seems unlikely as the whole story. He points out that the commenters' analysis lacked microbe PCR tests and cytokine measures to probe immune links. His reply urges care before concluding that the reaction is widely undercounted in early syphilis.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Hung-Chin Tsai |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 1700 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |