Syphilis Is Curable Only If You Treat It Early

Syphilis is an infection as old as the world itself. This disease has taken the lives of people hundreds of years ago, and yet it persists to endanger our lives to this very day. Unawareness and lack of interest are the factors that have kept this disease alive.

Syphilitic infection is of bacterial origin. Bacteria named Treponema Pallidum produce it. About this nasty infection, a few things. First, you should know that the most common transmission way is by sexual contact. Direct contact with the lesions produced by the infection during sexual contact is the main cause.

It can also be transmitted through other ways. Direct contact between a healthy individual and an infected individual's saliva will get the healthy person to contracting the disease. Any contact with any other body fluids such as seminal liquid, vaginal secretions of an infected individual will definitely lead to infection.

On the other hand, there are also non-sexual ways of transmitting the disease, such as biting, kissing or handling of contaminated instruments or things. However, sexual contact still remains to be the primary way of transferring the disease. Statistics show that the probability of contracting the disease after sexual contact with an infected partner is 30-50%. Even a single exposure to the bacteria will be an opportunity for it to start multiplying.

Syphilis normally starts off unnoticeably and then it progresses really slowly but definitely. If not attended to at its early stage, this extremely cruel disease could have terrible endings. At present, no transfusion can be done before all the blood and blood products have undergone rigid testing so that the risk of infection caused by blood transfusion should be nil. However, being over zealous about the test results will not hurt anyone.

Another way of non-sexual transmission of this disease is through congenital transmission wherein the mother transmits the bacteria to her newborn baby.

The symptoms of this disease come in stages and appear in various ways depending on the length of time that has elapsed from the first exposure to the bacteria. There are various phases in its evolution and it progresses unfavourably along the years.

The growth period of the bacteria starts from the first day ox exposure to as long as 90 days. Generally, there will be no biological or medical manifestations of the disease within this period.

The secondary phase ushers in changes from the primary phase symptoms, and could last up to two years. The syphilis patient is most contagious during the secondary phase as all the fluids of the body, such as the blood, vaginal secretions, semen, saliva, etc. contain active treponema organisms.

To determine if the person is infected or not, a blood test has to be conducted and this could also aid in tracing the bacteria. Finally, a microscopic analysis of the fluid from the primary or secondary lesions can diagnose the disease accurately.

Syphilis is easy to cure if diagnosed in its early stage. Antibiotics such as penicillin are generally recommended. Still, if the disease has been left unattended and has already progressed, then the affected organs could be irreversibly damaged.

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