Syphi­lis

Syphilis has four stages:

• Primary stage

  • Starts shortly after infection
  • Signs: small, painless, highly infectious, round sore, also known as “chancre”, appearing on or in the mouth or genitals (in the place where the bacteria entered the body)
  • Sore occurs mostly three weeks after infection, and disappears two to six weeks later
  • Disease is transmitted by direct contact with a sore

• Secondary stage

  • Signs: skin rashes on palms and soles, sore throat
  • Other symptoms: headache, swollen lymph glands, fever, fatigue, hair and weight loss, aching joints
  • Symptoms disappear whether or not the person gets treatment
  • Without treatment, the affected person is still infected

• Latent (hidden) stage

  • Signs of primary and secondary stage disappear
  • No noticeable symptoms
  • Secondary symptoms may reappear
  • Can take years before progressing to tertiary stage
  • Person is still infected with syphilis

• Tertiary stage

  • Very serious condition
  • Can occur years or decades after person was infected
  • Outcomes: blindness, deafness, mental illness, memory loss, destruction of soft tissue and bone, stroke, meningitis, heart disease, brain or spinal cord infection
  • May lead to death

The bacterium “Treponema pallidum” causes syphilis. It’s usually transmitted via contact with an infected person's sore during sexual activity. The bacteria enter the body through minor cuts in the skin or mucous membranes. Syphilis is contagious during its primary and secondary stages, and sometimes in the early latent (hidden) stage.

Sometimes, the disease might spread through direct unprotected close contact with an active lesion, e.g. during kissing, or through an infected mother to her child during pregnancy or birth. But syphilis cannot be spread by using the same toilet, doorknobs, clothing or eating utensils, or from swimming pools, bath or hot tubs.

Without treatment, syphilis can result in damages throughout the body. Therapy may prevent future damage but is not able to reverse or repair damage that's already occurred.

The following conditions may develop:

• Bumps (gummas) on the skin, bones, liver, etc. in the late stage (disappear after treatment with antibiotics)
• Problems with the nervous system, such as stroke, deafness, dementia, visual problems, meningitis
• Cardiovascular problems, e.g. aneurysm, inflammation of aorta, other blood vessels, damage of heart valves
• HIV infection
• Pregnancy and childbirth complications, such as miscarriage, stillbirth, death of the newborn

Once syphilis is cured, it doesn't recur. But the person can become reinfected if he/she has contact with someone's syphilis sore.

Healthline.com »