Syphilis
Syphilis is
a sexually transmitted infection caused by a bacterium. The signs and symptoms
of syphilis vary depending if the patient is at a primary, secondary, latent
and tertiary. Syphilis is most commonly spread through sexual activity, and in
2013, the virus affected 315,000 people and two years ago it had almost 100,000
people affected therefore there are rising numbers in amount of syphilis.
There are
different stages of syphilis: primary, secondary, latent and tertiary.
--In the
primary stage, syphilis is normally acquired by sexual contact with someone
that has been infected. A month after the sexual interaction, a chancre is
created which is a painless ulceration. The most common point of the chancre is
the cervix for women and the penis for men. Without having any type of
treatment than the sore can persist for three to six weeks.
In the
secondary stage, beginning stage of syphilis occurs for four to ten weeks after
the first stage. --In the secondary stage, not only are sores present but reddish
or pink rashes in the palms of soles if your feet and hands. Other symptoms may
be fever, weight loss, sore throat and other rare symptoms such as liver
inflammation and kidney disease. These symptoms usually leaves after three to six
weeks.
--In the
early latent stage, the symptoms of the previous two stages begin to disappear
therefore late latent state is not as contagious as the early latent syphilis.
The latent stage of syphilis begins once the sores are gone and the problem
with this is that since there are no symptoms on the body, the infection
continued on developing.
--In the
tertiary stage it can occur 3-15 years after the sexual interaction with the
infected person. In the late stages of the tertiary stage then a third of
infected people develop tertiary disease. People with tertiary syphilis are not
infectious.
How to
treat Syphilis?
If a patient
has early stage infections, then it can be treated with a small dose of
penicillin however if a patient in later infections of syphilis then they will
need to be given large doses of penicillin for more than 10 days.
How to
transmit Syphilis?
Syphilis can
be transmitted through sexual contact but also in pregnancy from mother to
baby, in addition it can be transmitted through kissing as well as oral and
anal sex. Syphilis occurs most commonly to gay sexual partners. Lastly, it can
be transmitted due to unsterilized needles however the risk is very limited.
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