Killing draws public health focus to STDs

A possible link between advanced syphilis and a brutal crime underscores the importance of continued diligence in diagnosis and treatment.

By Kathleen F. Phalen, AMNews correspondent. Feb. 12, 2001.

It was April 19, 2000 -- spring break. Eight-year-old Kevin Shifflett was doing his favorite thing, playing in the dirt with friends. But this would be the last day he would do it.

As Kevin scooped at the mud between the cracks in the pavement outside his great grandparents' Alexandria, Va., home, a man appeared as if from nowhere. In what some called a demented attack, he slashed Kevin's throat and repeatedly stabbed him.

Now, nearly a year later, court documents say the alleged killer, Gregory Murphy, has late-stage syphilis.

This isn't the first time the syphilis dementia theory has been linked with the criminal mind. One of the more famous suggests that several Jack the Ripper suspects had syphilis, among them Prince Albert Victor, grandson of Queen Victoria. Many believe he committed the London serial murders during fits of dementia brought on by the tertiary stage of the disease.

But in the 21st century?

If Murphy is found guilty, the ravages of untreated syphilis will be linked to the killing of a child. How far have medicine, public health and clinical practice come if infected people are slipping through the cracks, undiagnosed and untreated?

Michael Rein, MD, professor of internal medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, said he's not familiar with the Virginia case but isn't sure if he buys the idea of a syphilis defense.

Still, he knows that people fall through the cracks. Dr. Rein referred to pockets of the United States where syphilis is prevalent -- especially the Southeast, where 70% of new cases have appeared. He pointed to public health problems and issues of trust. [...]