What is Syphilis?

STDs are very common. But we can protect ourselves from STDs like syphilis. Learning more about syphilis is definitely an important first step.

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection (STI). It generally starts with a painless ulcer on your genitals. It can, however, be passed from a pregnant mother to her unborn baby. Untreated, syphilis infection can certainly spread, over many years, to involve other parts of the body, such as the center and brain.

Syphilis is usually easily treated in its initial phases, with a course (or single dose) of your antibiotic medicine. If you are infected with syphilis it is crucial that you are screened for other STIs. Your sexual partners must also be screened and treated (even if they just don’t have any symptoms). Genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics are most experienced at working with STIs such as syphilis.

Syphilis is also transmitted in the body. Syphilis can be contacted through receiving infected body products (a blood transfusion). In Britain, all blood products tend to be rigorously screened for microbe infections, including syphilis and HIV. Even so, syphilis can be passed from one person to another through sharing needles between injecting intravenous drug consumers (IVDUs).

Symptoms of Syphilis

In addition there are several stages of syphilis, which might overlap. The stages might be separated by latent periods, or times when no symptoms are mixed together.

Symptoms vary with every stage. But the syphilis symptoms will not always occur in the same order.

Primary Stage — A painless sore or start, wet ulcer, which is called a chancre, appears. You could have just one chancre or a few. Chancres usually appear a couple of weeks after infection, but might take up to 90 times. Without treatment, they last 3–6 weeks. Chancres can appear around the genitals, in the vagina, around the cervix, lips, mouth, boobies, or anus. Swollen glands can also occur during the main phase.

Secondary Stage — Other symptoms often appear 3–6 weeks after the sores appear. These syphilis symptoms can come and go for as much as two years. They include body rashes which last 2–6 weeks — often around the palms of the hands plus the soles of the ft. There are many various other symptoms, including mild a fever, fatigue, sore throat, thinning hair, weight loss, swollen glands, headache, and muscle pains.

Late Stage — One out of three individuals who have syphilis that is not really treated suffer serious destruction of the nervous system, center, brain, or other bodily organs, and death may consequence. This can occur 1–20 years after the beginning of the infection.

Is there treatment for Syphilis?

Yes. Early stages of syphilis are very easy to treat. If you have syphilis, you should (Must) take an antibiotic. Because syphilis is caused by germ (bacterium), it is actually readily treatable with antibiotics. Your partner(s) may also be treated simultaneously.

Antibiotic injections will be the usual treatment. Benzylpenicillin antibiotics is commonly used. This kills the bacterias (bacteria) and prevents the ailment from progressing any more. The injections are presented intramuscularly (IM), usually in the buttock. A single dose might be given for primary and also secondary syphilis. Later stages may need a course of several injections, at weekly times. Neurosyphilis usually requires more frequent, daily doses for a few weeks.

Other antibiotics are sometimes used if you’re allergic to penicillin. Azithromycin can often be used in this circumstance.

Keep in mind that any damage attributable to syphilis in the later stages cannot be undone. If you have reached risk for syphilis, regular testing will allow you to catch the infection at its earliest, most treatable phase.