My partner and I visited a clinic to get tested. We decided to opt for the rapid POC Treponemal test and our results were negative (the risk of exposure was 6 months ago) A few questions:

1. How accurate/reliable are the rapid poc syphillis tests?

2. Should we also pay to get the traditional syphillis blood tests? 

3. I know that mostly all reactive treponemal tests stay that way for ever. But let’s say I was one of those rare people who reverts to non reactive, how long would that take (months, years etc)? 

Going to your last question first:  in your two previous threads, Dr. Hook made it clear that there is no chance of syphilis from hand-genital contact.

1. The rapid syphilis test are relatively new development, but they appear to be excellent. Your negative results are conclusive.

2. There is no need for further testing.

3. The POC tests are treponemal tests -- and like the others, they remain positive for life. For the nontreponemal tests (RPR, VDRL, etc), the results may become negative as soon as a year after infection or not until 30 years or more.

You have never been at risk for syphilis and did not need testing. Your current results confirm you have never had it.

Best wishes--  HHH, MD

- my partner noticed  a non itchy rash on both of her inner fore arms. They started out as bumps which were red in the center, but then turned into brown, slightly raised, round scars. Is this consistent with the secondary syphilis rash?

- you said the rapid poc test appear to be excellent. Do they rise to the occasion of traditional blood test? Also, I’m in the United States. Would you recommend I reach out to the clinic to get the name of the test so that I can look up the sensitivity and specificity statistics of it? 

- i read that sometime treponemal antibodies may revert back to negative in rare instances (cdc says 15-25%). Is the cdc being modest in these numbers? Is it possible for these antibodies to revert back in a matter of 2-3 months? 

There aren't yet enough data to be completely confident, but all evidence is that the POC tests have equal performance of the heretofore standard syphilis blood tests. I am unaware of specific studies reporting test performance.

Some treponemal antibody tests (e.g. FTA-ABS) become negative ONLY when primary syphilis is successfully treated within a few weeks of onset. After that, or without treatment, this virtually never occurs. Having not had primary syphilis or treatment for it, there is no possibility your current negative test result is false.

You obviously are very obsessed with syphilis and the possibility you might have it, and equally obviously resistant to reasoned, science based evidence that you do not. There's nothing more this forum can do about this -- so it's time to stop asking us about it. Thanks.