Syphilis is alive and well.
August 2012 there was an outbreak of syphilis in Los Angeles, California dealing with the Pornography industry. The entire industry was shut down while all actors received treatment and had to wait 10 days before working again.
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that is primarily transmitted through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. The disease starts as a painless sore, typically on your genitals, the vagina, rectum, or mouth. These sores can be internal so you don’t know that they exist. The syphilis is spread by mucus membrane or skin contact with the sores.
The Syphilis bacteria can lie dormant in the body for decades with no symptoms. You may be infected and not know it for years. There are four stages of syphilis which don’t always occur in order.
Primary Syphilis
The first sign is a small sore called a chancre. The sore appears at the spot where the bacteria entered your body. You may have more than one chancre. The sores usually develop at approximately 3 weeks after exposure. Infected individuals may not know they even have the sores as they are painless and don’t cause any itching. These sores may actually be inside the vagina or rectum. The chancre heals on its own.
Secondary Syphilis
Once the healing of the initial chancre has occurred, you move on to secondary syphilis. Symptoms at this stage can include a non-painful rash somewhere on your body. It can be on your hands, feet, or the main trunk of your body. The rash may appear as rough, red, or reddish brown spots. The rash can also take on other characteristics that mimic other diseases. Many times the rash is so faint that it goes unnoticed. In addition to the rash the person infected may also experience body aches, fevers, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. These symptoms may come and go for periods of up to one year.
Latent Syphilis
With no treatment the disease can then move into a hidden stage where you have no symptoms. This stage can last for years and since there are no symptoms you don’t know that you have it and are carrying it.
Tertiary or Late Syphilis
If you have never been tested the syphilis can be in your body for years, even up to 10 to 20 years after initial infection. The late stages can cause damage to your brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints. Signs and symptoms of the late stages can include difficulty coordinating muscle movement, paralysis, numbness, deafness, gradual blindness, stroke, and dementia.
Diagnosis of Syphilis
Diagnosis is actually not a difficult task. It involves a simple blood test called a Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR). When you have the initial sore, the sore can be cultured and diagnosis can be made this way too. For later symptoms a spinal tap can be performed and the cerebral spinal fluid tested.
The scary thing is that syphilis is not routinely tested for. Your yearly OB/GYN exam doesn’t include the tests for syphilis or STDs unless you are honest with your doctor and they feel the need to test you for sexually transmitted diseases. The military does perform the RPR blood test in initial examination, but not yearly. Pregnant women are routinely tested as it can be transmitted during pregnancy to the unborn child.
It is suggested that if you are in a high risk category for STDs that you be tested for syphilis.
You could be infected with this disease in your early 20s and carry it into your 50s and not even know that you have it. You could spread it to all of your partners and they too wouldn’t have any idea.
Treatment
The treatment for syphilis is a very inexpensive shot of penicillin. For persons who have an allergy to penicillin there are other antibiotics available to treat it. This is the treatment in early syphilis. The bacteria can be killed, but once it has progressed to the Tertiary stage there is no reversing the complications of the disease. After an individual has received the antibiotic they are to abstain from sexual intercourse for a period of 10 days. All partners must be treated so reinfection does not occur.
You can be reinfected with syphilis again and again. You need to take protective measures such as: condom use, dental dams, abstinence, and a monogamous relationship. Latex condoms can protect you from the bacteria if the condom is covering the area of the sore.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 2010 both women and men in the ages of 20 to 24 are the highest age group that are testing positive for syphilis. There were a total of 13,774 cases reported in 2010. This seems like a low number considering the population of the United States but if people aren’t being tested they aren’t included in the numbers. Many doctors’ offices and hospitals also don’t report the numbers to the state departments of health as they are supposed to be doing.
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that is primarily transmitted through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. The disease starts as a painless sore, typically on your genitals, the vagina, rectum, or mouth. These sores can be internal so you don’t know that they exist. The syphilis is spread by mucus membrane or skin contact with the sores.
The Syphilis bacteria can lie dormant in the body for decades with no symptoms. You may be infected and not know it for years. There are four stages of syphilis which don’t always occur in order.
Primary Syphilis
The first sign is a small sore called a chancre. The sore appears at the spot where the bacteria entered your body. You may have more than one chancre. The sores usually develop at approximately 3 weeks after exposure. Infected individuals may not know they even have the sores as they are painless and don’t cause any itching. These sores may actually be inside the vagina or rectum. The chancre heals on its own.
Secondary Syphilis
Once the healing of the initial chancre has occurred, you move on to secondary syphilis. Symptoms at this stage can include a non-painful rash somewhere on your body. It can be on your hands, feet, or the main trunk of your body. The rash may appear as rough, red, or reddish brown spots. The rash can also take on other characteristics that mimic other diseases. Many times the rash is so faint that it goes unnoticed. In addition to the rash the person infected may also experience body aches, fevers, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes. These symptoms may come and go for periods of up to one year.
Latent Syphilis
With no treatment the disease can then move into a hidden stage where you have no symptoms. This stage can last for years and since there are no symptoms you don’t know that you have it and are carrying it.
Tertiary or Late Syphilis
If you have never been tested the syphilis can be in your body for years, even up to 10 to 20 years after initial infection. The late stages can cause damage to your brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones, and joints. Signs and symptoms of the late stages can include difficulty coordinating muscle movement, paralysis, numbness, deafness, gradual blindness, stroke, and dementia.
Diagnosis of Syphilis
Diagnosis is actually not a difficult task. It involves a simple blood test called a Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR). When you have the initial sore, the sore can be cultured and diagnosis can be made this way too. For later symptoms a spinal tap can be performed and the cerebral spinal fluid tested.
The scary thing is that syphilis is not routinely tested for. Your yearly OB/GYN exam doesn’t include the tests for syphilis or STDs unless you are honest with your doctor and they feel the need to test you for sexually transmitted diseases. The military does perform the RPR blood test in initial examination, but not yearly. Pregnant women are routinely tested as it can be transmitted during pregnancy to the unborn child.
It is suggested that if you are in a high risk category for STDs that you be tested for syphilis.
You could be infected with this disease in your early 20s and carry it into your 50s and not even know that you have it. You could spread it to all of your partners and they too wouldn’t have any idea.
Treatment
The treatment for syphilis is a very inexpensive shot of penicillin. For persons who have an allergy to penicillin there are other antibiotics available to treat it. This is the treatment in early syphilis. The bacteria can be killed, but once it has progressed to the Tertiary stage there is no reversing the complications of the disease. After an individual has received the antibiotic they are to abstain from sexual intercourse for a period of 10 days. All partners must be treated so reinfection does not occur.
You can be reinfected with syphilis again and again. You need to take protective measures such as: condom use, dental dams, abstinence, and a monogamous relationship. Latex condoms can protect you from the bacteria if the condom is covering the area of the sore.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 2010 both women and men in the ages of 20 to 24 are the highest age group that are testing positive for syphilis. There were a total of 13,774 cases reported in 2010. This seems like a low number considering the population of the United States but if people aren’t being tested they aren’t included in the numbers. Many doctors’ offices and hospitals also don’t report the numbers to the state departments of health as they are supposed to be doing.
Really nice article.
Great! As an OB nurse, I'm an advocate for taking care of yourself. This is a great article that outlines the symptoms and encourages getting checked. Nice.
Good job.
Awesome article and very informative.
Great first post
Very informative. I didn't know any of that information and glad I learned something new today. Thanks for the great article.
I learned something I did not know but should have known. I have had three children and tested negative all three times to syphilis, thank all the Gods! I honestly never connected that this is a bacteria not a virus. More reason to get tested and actually ASK for the test....it's too damn easy to treat to let it set in and become deadly.
Great article! Very well done!!
The #1 thing I took away from this article was in the first paragraph, "Syphilis is not routinely checked for..."
Now I know to ASK for this, and all other "not routinely tested for" tests when I go in for my screening.
Thank you!
I was aware of it being a bacteria instead of a virus already, but I know a lot of people don't know that important fact. Thank you for enlightening everyone! Great article!
great article...reminds me of my infection control nursing time!! There are so many things that people don't know and I've always been an advocate for teaching! thanks!!
Thanks for sharing this with us, it's really informative and helpful! I always ask for all the tests I can possibly get at my annual check up because it's better to be safe than sorry.
Very informative, thank you.
Excellent article! Well done. Thank you!
Great job Travelnurse, educating us so well! Love it! I actually only recently found out our local health dept. had never ever been testing for this one! It was there on the papers when you got tested and showed up as "tested for all" and they'd say yes if you asked, but until they cleaned house at the office, I did not know they never were testing for syphillis, or a couple others even! Yikes. I do remember seeing a sign once in my area that said we had a syphillis outbreak and it scared the pants off me -- or should I say scared the pants ON me! LOL. Thanks for your expertise. No matter how old we get, we should always be informed.
great article. in my experience you have to specifically ask for testing. i don;t understand why it's not brought up by docs during an annual. i've even said "test me for everything you can" and still not been told about all the things that should of been tested for. also of course ask for hiv, and hep
i recommend hep vaccine and hpv vaccines for anyone sexually active that have tested negative. and one day there will be an hiv vacc
My doc always has recommended and does a full STI screening at my yearly. She claims that there re too many "silent STI's" and that it best to get checked for everything, regardless of usage of condoms or relationship status. Then again she also considers non barrier method birth control as back up BC should a condom break. lol She really pushes safe sex, and I do not fault her in any way for doing so.