Syphilis is a common bacterial infection that’s spread through sex. Syphilis is easily cured with antibiotic medicine, but it can cause permanent damage if you don’t get treated. Typically on the genitals, rectum or mouth. Syphilis spreads from person to person via skin or mucous membrane contact with these sores. You can catch syphilis more than once, even if you have been treated for it before.
Syphilis is an infection that develops due to T. pallidum bacteria. These bacteria can spread between people through direct contact with a syphilitic sore.
You can get syphilis by direct contact with a syphilis sore during vaginal, anal, or oral sex. You can find sores on or around the penis, vagina, or anus, or in the rectum, on the lips, or in the mouth. Syphilis can spread from an infected mother to her unborn baby.
Syphilis isn’t spread through casual contact, so you CAN’T get it from sharing food or drinks, hugging, holding hands, coughing, sneezing, sharing towels, or sitting on toilet seats.
The main ways people get syphilis are from having vaginal sex and anal sex. It’s less common to get it from having oral sex, but it can happen. Syphilis is very easy to give to other people in the beginning, when there are sores. But lots of people don’t even know they have syphilis because they don’t notice the sores. Using condoms every time you have sex is one of the best ways to help prevent syphilis — even if you and your partner seem totally healthy.
A mother can also pass syphilis to a baby during pregnancy and childbirth, which can be dangerous. This is called congenital syphilis.
The only way to avoid STDs is to not have vaginal, anal, or oral sex.
If you are sexually active, you can do the following things to lower your chances of getting syphilis:
Any sexually active person can get syphilis through unprotected vaginal, anal, or oral sex. Have an honest and open talk with your health care provider and ask whether you should be tested for syphilis or other STDs.
The first stage of syphilis can easily go undetected. The symptoms in the second stage are also common symptoms of other illnesses. This means that if any of the following applies to you, consider getting tested for syphilis. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ever had any symptoms. Get tested if you:
have had condomless sex with someone who might have had syphilis
If the test comes back positive, it’s important to complete the full treatment. Make sure to finish the full course of antibiotics, even if symptoms disappear. Also avoid all sexual activity until your doctor tells you that it’s safe. Consider getting tested for HIV as well.
People who have tested positive for syphilis should notify all of their recent sexual partners so that they can also get tested and receive treatment.
Doctors categorize the stage of syphilis as either primary, secondary, latent, or tertiary. A variety of symptoms define each stage.
The disease can be contagious during the primary and secondary stages and, occasionally, the early latent phase. Tertiary syphilis is not contagious, but it has the most severe symptoms.
The symptoms of primary syphilis include one or more painless, firm, and round syphilitic sores, or chancres. These appear 10 days to 3 months after the bacteria enter the body. Chancres resolve within 2–6 weeks. However, without treatment, the disease may remain in the body and progress to the next phase.
Secondary syphilis symptoms include:
These symptoms may resolve a few weeks after they first appear. They might also return several times over a longer period. Without treatment, secondary syphilis can progress to the latent and tertiary stages.
The latent phase can last for several years. During this time, the body will harbor the disease without symptoms. However, the T. pallidum bacteria remain dormant in the body, and there is always a risk of recurrence. Doctors still recommend treating syphilis at this stage, even if symptoms do not occur. After the latent phase, tertiary syphilis may develop.
Tertiary syphilis can occur 10–30 years Trusted Source after the onset of the infection, usually after a period of latency during which there are no symptoms.
At this stage, syphilis damages the following organs and systems:
Neurosyphilis is a condition that develops when T. pallidum bacteria have spread to the nervous system. It often has links to latent and tertiary syphilis. However, it can occur at any time after the primary stage.
A person with neurosyphilis may be asymptomatic for a long time. Alternatively, symptoms might develop gradually.
Symptoms includeTrusted Source:
Congenital syphilis is severe and frequently life threatening. T. pallidum bacteria can transfer from a pregnant woman to a fetus through the placenta and during the birth process.
Data suggest that without screening and treatment, about 70% of women with syphilis will have an adverse outcome in pregnancy.
Adverse outcomes include early fetal or neonatal death, preterm birth or low birth weight, and infection in infants.
Symptoms in newborns include:
Older infants and young children may experience:
Call your doctor if you or your child experiences any unusual discharge, sore or rash — particularly if it occurs in the groin area.
Primary and secondary syphilis are easy to treat with a penicillin injection. Penicillin is one of the most widely used antibiotics and is usually effective in treating syphilis. People who are allergic to penicillin will likely be treated with a different antibiotic, such as:
If you have neurosyphilis, you’ll get daily doses of penicillin intravenously. This will often require a brief hospital stay. Unfortunately, the damage caused by late syphilis can’t be reversed. The bacteria can be killed, but treatment will most likely focus on easing pain and discomfort.
During treatment, make sure to avoid sexual contact until all sores on your body are healed and your doctor tells you it’s safe to resume sex. If you’re sexually active, your partner should be treated as well. Don’t resume sexual activity until you and your partner have completed treatment.
Yes, syphilis can be cured with the right antibiotics from your healthcare provider. However, treatment might not undo any damage that the infection has already done.
Having syphilis once does not protect you from getting it again. Even after you’ve been successfully treated, you can still be re-infected. Only laboratory tests can confirm whether you have syphilis. Follow-up testing by your healthcare provider is recommended to make sure that your treatment was successful.
It may not be obvious that a sex partner has syphilis. This is because syphilis sores can be hidden in the vagina, anus, under the foreskin of the penis, or in the mouth. Unless you know that your sex partner(s) has been tested and treated, you may be at risk of getting syphilis again from an infected sex partner.
preventive measures to decrease the risk of syphilis include:
If tests show that you have syphilis, your sex partners — including current partners and any other partners you’ve had over the last three months to one year — need to be informed so that they can get tested. If they’re infected, they can then be treated.
Official, confidential partner notification can help limit the spread of syphilis. The practice also steers those at risk toward counseling and the right treatment. And since you can contract syphilis more than once, partner notification reduces your risk of getting reinfected.
People can be infected with syphilis and not know it. In light of the often deadly effects syphilis can have on unborn children, health officials recommend that all pregnant women be screened for the disease.
Syphilis – CDC Fact Sheet https://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/stdfact-syphilis.htm
What to know about syphilis https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186656#prevention
Syphilis https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/syphilis/symptoms-causes/syc-20351756
Syphilis https://www.healthline.com/health/std/syphilis#diagnosis
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