Syphilis

1. Is syphilis curable or treatable?

Syphilis is an infection that develops thanks to T. pallidum bacteria. These bacteria can increase between people through direct contact with a syphilitic sore.
These sores may progress on the skin or mucous membranes of the vagina, anus, rectum, lips, or mouth.
Syphilis is presumably to spread during oral, anal, or vaginal sexual intercourse. People barely pass the bacteria on through kissing.
The first sign may be a painless inflamed on either the genitals, rectum, mouth, or another part of the skin. Some people don't notice the sore, because it doesn't cause pain.
These sores resolve on their own. However, if an individual doesn't receive treatment, the bacteria remain within the body. They will remain dormant within the body for decades trusted Source ahead reactivating and damaging organs, including the brain.

Symptoms

Doctors categorize the stage of syphilis as either primary, secondary, latent, or tertiary. a spread of symptoms defines each stage.
The disease is often contagious Trusted Source during the first and secondary stages and, occasionally, the first latent phase. Syphilis isn't contagious, but it's the foremost severe symptom.

Primary symptoms

The symptoms of syphilis include one or more painless, firm, and round syphilitic irritation, or chancres. These appear 10 days to three months after the bacteria enter the body.
Chancres resolve within 2–6 weeks. However, without treatment, the disease may remain within the body and reach a subsequent phase.

Secondary symptoms

Secondary syphilis symptoms include:
The tenderness that resembles oral, anal, and genital warts
A non-itchy, rough, red, or red-brown rash that starts on the trunk and spreads to the whole body, including the palms and soles

• Muscle aches
• fever
• a pharyngitis
• swollen lymph nodes
• patchy hair loss
• headaches
• unexplained weight loss
• fatigue

These symptoms may resolve a couple of weeks after they first appear. They could also return several times over an extended period.
Without treatment, syphilis can reach the latent and tertiary stages.

Latent syphilis

The latent phase can last for several years. During this point, the body will harbor the disease without symptoms.
However, the bacteria remain dormant within the body, and there's always a risk of recurrence. Doctors still recommend treating syphilis at this stage, albeit symptoms don't occur.

After the latent phase, syphilis may develop.

Tertiary syphilis, or late syphilis

Tertiary syphilis can occur 10–30 years Trusted Source after the onset of the disease, commonly after a period of latency during which there are not any symptoms.
At this stage, syphilis damages the subsequent organs and systems:

• heart
• blood vessels
• liver
• bones
• joints

Gummas can also develop. These are soft tissue swellings that will occur anywhere on the body.
Organ damage means syphilis can often cause death. Conduct syphilis ahead it reaches this stage is, therefore, critical.

Neurosyphilis
Neurosyphilis may be a condition that develops when bacteria have spread to the systema nervosum. It generally has links to latent and syphilis. However, it can appear at any time after the first stage.

A person with neurosyphilis could also be asymptomatic for an extended time. Alternatively, symptoms might develop gradually.
Symptoms include Trusted Source:

• dementia or altered mental status
• abnormal gait
• numbness within the extremities
• problems with concentration
• confusion
• headache or seizures
• vision problems or vision loss
• weakness
• Congenital syphilis
• 
  Congenital syphilis is severe and regularly life-threatening. T. pallidum bacteria can transfer from a pregnant woman to a fetus through the placenta and through the birth process.

Data suggest that without screening and treatment, about 70% of girls with syphilis will have an adverse outcome in pregnancy.

Adverse outcomes include early fetal or death, preterm birth or low birth weight, and infection in infants.

Symptoms in newborns include:

• saddle nose, during which the bridge of the nose is missing
• fever
• difficulty gaining weight
• a rash of the genitalia, anus, and mouth
• small blisters on the hands and feet that change to a coppery rash, which can be bumpy or flat, and spread to the face
• watery nasal fluid

Older infants and young children may experience:
Hutchinson teeth, or abnormal, peg-shaped teeth

• bone pain
• vision loss
• hearing loss
• joint swelling

saber shins, a bone problem within the lower legs
injure of the skin around the genitals, anus, and mouth
gray patches around the outer vagina and anus
Is it curable?

Anyone who is worried that they could have syphilis or another sexually transmitted infection (STI) should speak to a doctor as soon as possible, as prompt treatment can cure it.
Early treatment with penicillin is vital because the disease can cause life-threatening consequences in the future.
At a later stage, syphilis remains curable. However, an individual may require an extended course of penicillin.
If nerve or organ damage appears during the later stages of syphilis, treatment won't repair it. Treatment can, however, avert further damage by clearing the bacteria from a person’s body.

Treatment
Treatment for syphilis is often successful, particularly within the early stages.
The treatment strategy will depend upon the symptoms and the way long an individual has harbored the bacteria. However, during the first, secondary, or tertiary stage, people with syphilis will typically receive an injection of penicillin G benzathine.
Tertiary syphilis would require multiple injections at weekly intervals.
Neurosyphilis requires intravenous (IV) penicillin every 4 hours for two weeks to get rid of the bacteria from the central systema nervosum.
Curing the disease will prevent further damage to the body, and safe sexual practices can resume. However, treatment cannot undo any damage Trusted Source that has already appear.
People with a penicillin allergy can sometimes use an alternate medication within the early stages. However, during pregnancy and within the tertiary stages, anyone with an allergy will undergo penicillin desensitization to permit for safe treatment.
Following delivery, newborns with syphilis should undergo antibiotic treatment.

2. What happens if syphilis is left untreated?
Untreated syphilis can cause permanent damage to multiple body systems like the brain, heart, and eyes and end in life-threatening complications. Syphilis is often cured completely within the initial stages with antibiotics (Penicillin). Timely treatment can help prevent complications. There’s no treatment available to repair or reverse the damage that has already occurred. The common complications which will occur include the following:

Gummas: Small bumps or tumors called gummas can progress on the skin, bones, and other organs like the liver within the late stage of syphilis. Gummas commonly disappear after treatment of syphilis with antibiotics.

Neurological complications: Syphilis can damage the brain and systema nervosum generate the following:

• Meningitis (inflammation of the brain)
• Hearing loss
• Decreased vision
• Blindness
• Dementia presenting with memory problems
• Loss of pain and temperature sensations
• Headache
• Stroke

Cardiovascular (heart) complications:

Aneurysm (infection and widening) of the aorta (a major artery) and other blood vessels
Damage to the guts valves
Genitourinary complications:

Impotency in men
Urinary incontinence (inability to regulate urination)

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease: Patients with syphilis have a significantly increased risk of contracting HIV. Chancres bleed easily, resulting in easy transmission of HIV during sexual intercourse.

Pregnancy and childbirth complications: Congenital syphilis expansion the danger of miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth, or death of the baby soon after birth. The kid can develop have visual problems and deafness.

Syphilis may be a bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum. Syphilis also can be transmitted from the mother to the unborn baby. Infrequently, the bacteria can enter your body through minor cuts or abrasions on the skin or mucous membranes. Syphilis is contagious during its primary and secondary stages and infrequently within the early periods of the tertiary (latent) stage. After the initial disease, the bacteria may remain inactive (dormant) within the body for a few years, even decades before becoming active. Syphilis is often completely cured within the initial stages. Without treatment, syphilis can source life-threatening complications and forever damage the guts, brain, and other organs.

The following factors increase the danger of acquiring syphilis:

• Unprotected sexual activity
• Multiple sexual partners
• Men having sex with men (MSM)
• Human immunodeficiency virus/Acquired immunodeficiency virus (HIV/AIDS) infection

 

Syphilis progresses piecemeal, and therefore the presentation varies at each stage. The signs and syndrome of syphilis at every stage of syphilis are as follows:

Primary syphilis: Syphilis begins with a little, shallow, painless sore, also called a chancre, around three weeks after exposure. The sore can occur anywhere over the body but is common within the mouth and genitals. It’s going to sometimes be hidden within the rectum or vagina. Most patients usually develop just one chance, and a few people develop many. Chancres commonly heal on their own six weeks.
Secondary syphilis: Few weeks after the chancre improve, a rash appears, starting on the trunk and expand to the remainder of the body including the palms and soles. There’s usually no pain or itching. Wart-like sores can occur within the mouth or genitals. Patients even have hair loss, muscle pain, fever, throat pain, and enlarged lymph nodes. These signs and symptoms may disappear after a couple of weeks or may appear on and off for up to a year.
Latent syphilis: If patients aren't conducted for syphilis, the disease enters the latent (hidden) stage. During the latent stage, patients usually don't have any symptoms, and this will last for several years. Signs and symptoms may never return, or the disease can reach the tertiary stage.
Tertiary syphilis: syphilis is additionally referred to as the late stage of syphilis. Around 15-30% of patients that go untreated develop complications of syphilis called syphilis. The disease may permanently damage the brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints which will be life-threatening. These complications can appear years after the initial untreated infection.
Neurosyphilis: this will occur at any stage. The disease can spread and cause damage to the brain and nerves.
Congenital syphilis: Syphilis also can be transmitted from the mother to the unborn baby or at the time of birth. Most newborns with congenital syphilis might not have any symptoms initially. Some babies hold a rash on the palms and soles. Signs and symptoms which will progress later include deafness, teeth deformities, and saddle nose deformity (collapsed nose). Babies with syphilis can also change state prematurely, change state dead, or die soon after birth.

3. How long does it take to cure syphilis?

Syphilis may be a common infection in people, especially adults, around the world. Consequently, it's important for you to understand what it’s, and what causes it. This may assist you skills to treat it, and the way long it should take.

Syphilis may be a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that will cause infected sores, ulcers, or blisters. They’ll appear on your genitals, mouth, or anus. You’ll catch on by engaging in sexual intercourse with an infected person or by sharing sex toys.

Syphilis is often divided into the subsequent stages:

Primary: you'll have a sore or sores at the first site of infection. Normally the sores are painless, round, and perhaps firm. The foremost common places they occur are around your genitals and anus, or in your rectum.
Secondary: you'll start to experience symptoms like fever, skin rashes, and swelling of the lymph nodes.
Latent: you'll not experience any signs or symptoms during this stage.
Tertiary: this is often the ultimate stage of the condition. It’s going to include medical complications. A severe syphilis disease may affect your brain, heart, and other body organs.
If you think you've got syphilis, you ought to get tested and treated as fast as possible. It’s important that you simply skills to spot the signs and symptoms of syphilis. Which will assist you to detect it as early as possible.

Main symptoms of syphilis
You may experience different symptoms of syphilis counting on the stage you're in. Symptoms are usually equivalent for men and ladies. They will be confidential into three groups.

The early symptoms of syphilis during the first stage may appear within three weeks after infection. These early symptoms include:

Small painless sore (chancre): The sore may appear on the penis, vagina, or around the anus, although it can sometimes appear within the mouth or on the lips, fingers, or buttocks. You’ll have one or more sores. The chancre disappears within three to 6 weeks.
Swollen lymph glands in your collar, armpits, or groin.

After the first symptoms are gone, you'll enter the second stage. You’ll start experiencing signs of syphilis which include:

A sepia rash

white patches within the mouth

Headaches, fever, tiredness, and other flu-like symptoms

Swollen lymph nodes

Patchy hair loss: This might only happen infrequently
Weight loss
Following the secondary stage, there could also be times when your syphilis infection is latent. This is often the time there are not any signs or symptoms in the least for months or maybe years. You continue to need treatment to urge obviate it.

People who have had syphilis for an extended time face serious health problems. During the ultimate, or tertiary, stage of syphilis, symptoms are far more severe. They will include:

• Tumors
• Chest pain and difficulty in breathing
• Paralysis
• Joint pain

Early symptoms may pass during a few weeks or a couple of months. This process shouldn't be mistaken for healing. You’ll still have syphilis albeit you are doing not show any symptoms.
The main causes of syphilis include:
Engaging in sexual intercourse with an infected person: any contact of the genitals or non-penetrative sex can pass syphilis between partners.
Passing from mother to child during pregnancy: If you've got an untreated syphilis infection during your pregnancy, your child is presumably getting to get congenital syphilis. This will cause miscarriage or stillbirth.
Sharing needles and blood transfusion: you'll get syphilis if you share needles with an infected person. Transfusion from an infected person also will spread the syphilis bacterium from the donor to the recipient.

Diagnosis for syphilis
Only a licensed healthcare professional can diagnose syphilis. Once you visit your doctor, they're going to likely ask about your medical and sexual history. They’re going to examine your symptoms and therefore the affected area. Your doctor can also take blood samples that can be tested during a lab to work out if you've got syphilis.
There are two types of blood tests to prove whether you've got a syphilis infection:

Nontreponemal tests detect damage to your cells generate by syphilis
Treponemal tests detect antibodies that your body generate to fight syphilis
Both sorts of tests are needed to verify a positive diagnosis for syphilis.

4. Can you get syphilis from kissing?

Many STDs either cause no signs or symptoms or they cause symptoms so mild that they're easy to overlook. Still, it's important to treat the underlying infection.

Since not all of those health issues cause obvious problems, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) could also be a more accurate term than STDs, the note.

There are quite 26 infections that mainly spread through sexual contact. A huge majority of STIs are transmitted through contact with the genitals, including genital fluids or sores, typically during intercourse or the head.

For most healthy people, kissing may be a very low-risk sexual intercourse.
But a couple of STIs can spread through kissing, especially when someone has a lively infection or symptoms like oral sores. Among these infections are:

Herpes

The herpes simplex virus has two subtypes: HSV-1 and HSV-2.
Both viruses cause lifelong infections. An individual with either infection can experience symptom-free periods followed by symptoms.
Herpes is most contagious when symptoms are present, but an individual can still pass it on once they are asymptomatic.

Most people with herpes labialis have an HSV-1 infection. This causes sores, painful blisters, or ulcers to make in, on, or around the mouth or lips Trusted Source. These skin lesions are often referred to as cold sores.

In most cases, HSV-1 spreads through oral-to-oral contact like kissing.
Meanwhile, an estimated 491 million Trusted Source people aged 15–49 worldwide have an HSV-2 infection. This typically sources painful genital sores, blisters, or ulcers. It increases through sexual contact, usually genital-to-genital contact.

People with HSV-1 might not require professional treatment. It’s important to practice good hygiene, and an individual may use over-the-counter medication to combat cold sores. People with active sores might want to avoid kissing until their sores getaway.
People with HSV-2 may take antiviral medications indefinitely to scale back the danger of experiencing symptoms and transmitting the virus.

Syphilis

Syphilis may be a bacterial STI spread through direct contact with a syphilis sore. These sores can develop on the genitals, within the mouth, or on the lips. Syphilis also can spread to a baby during pregnancy.

Symptoms grow more severe as syphilis progresses. Initially, an individual tends to possess round, firm, painless sores. These often heal on their own within 3–6 weeks Trusted Source.

Later, an individual may develop a rough, reddish-brown rash, which can appear on the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, or both. An individual might not notice the rash directly, because it might not itch.

A person with syphilis can also experience Trusted Source:

• a fever
• headaches
• swollen lymph nodes
• a pharyngitis
• weight loss
• fatigue
• muscle aches

These symptoms often resolve on their own. However, anyone with syphilis requires antibiotic treatment to stop the disease from progressing.
Within 10–30 years trusted Source of the initial infection, syphilis can cause life-threatening complications. At this stage, a doctor may ask about the difficulty of syphilis.
Some communities have latent syphilis — they experience no symptoms early. However, if they are doing not receive treatment, they will develop damaging health issues related to syphilis and need urgent medical aid.

Cytomegalovirus

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is extremely common — nearly 1 in 3Trusted Source children within us develop the infection by age 5, and quite half the adults within the country have it by age 40.

The virus can spread through direct contact with Trusted Sources with bodily fluids, including semen, breast milk, blood, and tears. It also increases through contact with saliva or urine — especially in babies and younger children.

In healthy people, the system usually prevents CMV from causing severe infection or illness. Most of the people with the infection are unaware that they need it.
When CMV does cause symptoms, it tends to cause:

• a pharyngitis
• fatigue
• a fever
• swollen lymph nodes

People with compromised immune function and a CMV disease may experience more severe symptoms that affect the lungs, liver, eyes, esophagus, stomach, and intestines.

A baby born with a CMV infection may have impaired growth, deafness, and problems affecting the brain, liver, spleen, and lungs.

Once someone features a CMV infection, they need it at all times, and it can reactivate.

There is no cure for CMV, but most of the people who have the infection don't require treatment. Babies and other people with reduced immune function may have to require antiviral medications to stop complications.

HPV

HPV stands for human papillomavirus. There are several of those viruses, and a few can cause cancer later in life.
In rare cases, an individual can pass the infection through oral contact or contact with infected saliva. The foremost common thanks to transmitting the virus is thru direct contact with the genitals, however.
Source of girls and 10%Trusted Source of men within the develop oral HPV. Most people clear the infection within a few of years.
Oral HPV infects the throat and mouth and may cause cancers of the oropharynx, the rear of the throat, the bottom of the tongue, and therefore the tonsils. Health experts believe that 70%Trusted Source of cases of oropharyngeal cancer within the U.S. is caused by HPV.

Common symptoms of oropharyngeal cancer include:

• a persistent pharyngitis
• hoarseness
• swollen lymph nodes
• pain while swallowing
• unexplained weight loss
• an earache

5. What are the signs of syphilis in a man?

Syphilis is often absolutely confusing because there are a couple of different stages, and that they can overlap or happen around the same time. And there could also be times once you haven't any symptoms in the least — but the infection will still be there until you catch on treated. Symptoms can vary with each stage, and that they won't always happen within the same order for everybody.

Primary stage.

A syphilis sore (called a chancre) pops up — that sore is where the syphilis disease entered your body. Chances are commonly firm, round, and painless, or sometimes open and wet. There’s often just one sore, but you'll have more.

Chancres can show abreast of your vulva, vagina, anus, penis, scrotum, and infrequently, your lips or mouth. The sores can also hide deep in your vagina, under your foreskin, inside your rectum, and other places that are hard to ascertain.

Syphilis sores are SUPER contagious and simply pass the infection to people during sex. It’s easy to mistake a chance for a hair, pimple, or harmless bump. And since the sores aren’t painful and may sleep in hidden places, you'll not notice them.

Chancres typically show up anywhere between 3 weeks and three months after you get the infection. The sores usually last about 3 to six weeks then get away on their own — with or without treatment. But if you don’t get treated, you continue to have syphilis, albeit the sores are gone. You’ve got to require medication to cure syphilis and stop it from moving to the subsequent stages.

Secondary stage.

Secondary standing symptoms include rashes on the palms of your hands, soles of your feet, or other parts of your body. The syphilis rash is usually hard to ascertain, and it always doesn’t itch. You’ll feel sick and have mild flu-like symptoms, sort of a slight fever, feeling tired, pharyngitis, swollen glands, headache, and muscle aches. You’ll even have sores in your mouth, vagina, or anus, and weight or hair loss.
Secondary stage symptoms (syphilis rash) can last 2 to six weeks at a time and should come and choose up to 2 years. They’re almost like other common illnesses, so it is often hard to inform its syphilis. The symptoms from this stage will get away by themselves with or without treatment. But unless you get treated for syphilis, you’ll still have the infection in your body and it can enter the damaging later stages. That’s why STD testing is so important.

Late-stage.

In between the second stage and therefore the late stage, there could also be times when your syphilis infection is latent (there are not any signs or symptoms at all) for months or maybe years — but you continue to need treatment to urge obviate it. People that have had syphilis for an extended time face serious health problems. The late stages of syphilis can source tumors, blindness, and paralysis. It can damage your systema nervosum, brain, and other organs, and should even kill you.
Syphilis is definitely curable with antibiotics within the early stages. If you get treatment late, it'll still cure the infection and stop future damage to your body. But the damage that late-stage syphilis has already generate can’t be changed or healed. The complications from late-stage syphilis can happen 10-20 years after you initially get infected.