Syphilis

**Syphilis** is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a bacterium called *Treponema pallidum*. Syphilis is usually spread by sexual contact. However, a fetus can get syphilis from its mother while she is pregnant or during childbirth. This is called * syphilis*.

There are four stages of syphilis: the primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary stages. In each stage, the signs and symptoms of syphilis are different.

In the primary stage, a person usually just has a wound on their skin, called a "chancre." In the secondary stage, a person usually gets a . In the "latent" stage, syphilis has few or no symptoms. If syphilis reaches the tertiary stage, which is the most severe, it causes many serious symptoms. These can include problems with the nervous system (the brain and nerves) and problems with the heart. Many people with tertiary syphilis will die if they do not get medical treatment.

Syphilis is usually diagnosed with blood tests. The bacteria that causes syphilis can also be seen under a microscope. Most people who have syphilis can be treated and  with antibiotics.

By 1999, more than 12 million people around the world had syphilis. More than 90% of these people (10.8 million) lived in the developing world.

Later, a chancre (skin sore) usually appears at the place on the body that touched the infected wounds.

Chancres can appear in places other than the genitals. In women, chancres most often appear on the cervix - the bottom of the uterus. Some people get no chancres at all. Many people who have secondary syphilis (40–85% of women and 20–65% of men) say they never had a chancre during the primary stage.

Around the place where syphilis entered the body, the lymph nodes usually get bigger

### Secondary stage
 and nodules over much of the body due to secondary syphilis]]

If a person does not get treatment, syphilis will get worse. The secondary stage of syphilis will start about four to ten weeks after the person first got infected.

The symptoms of secondary syphilis usually get better after three to six weeks.

A person can get syphilis if they get a blood transfusion from someone with the disease. However, many countries test blood donations for syphilis. In countries that do not do this, getting syphilis from a blood transfusion is much more likely.

Scientists think syphilis is usually not spread by sharing needles

## Diagnosis
It is hard for doctors to diagnose syphilis just from the signs and symptoms that happen early on, because many diseases can cause skin sores and rashes.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that the best ways to prevent syphilis are: By doing this in 2015, Cuba became the first country in the world to eradicate the spread of syphilis from Cuban mothers to their babies.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force  and the World Health Organization

In most developed countries, congenital syphilis is not common. It still happens once in a while, when women do not get any health care during pregnancy. Getting tested regularly helps prevent syphilis from being spread. If a person is tested and finds out that they have syphilis, they are more likely to get treatment, and will not accidentally spread syphilis to other people.

Syphilis is a notifiable disease in many places, including Canada, the countries in the European Union, and the United States. This means that if a healthcare provider (like a doctor or a nurse) knows that a patient has syphilis, they must tell public health authorities that the patient is infected. Public health workers then talk to all of the patient's sexual partners. They tell them someone might have given them syphilis, without telling them who that person is. Doctors might also try to get patients with syphilis to tell their sexual partners to get treatment.

## Treatment
### Early infections
Syphilis that is not complicated can usually be treated and cured by antibiotic medications.

Usually, people need just one dose of penicillin G or azithromycin. If a person cannot take either of these medicines (for example, because they are allergic to them), some other medications work too. For example, Doxycycline and tetracycline are two other possible choices; however, they cannot be used in pregnant women.

The *Treponema pallidum* bacterium has become resistant to many different antibiotics, including macrolides, clindamycin, and rifampin.

## Epidemiology
In 1999, syphilis had infected about 12 million people. More than 90% of these people lived in the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa, syphilis causes up to 20% of perinatal deaths (deaths that happen soon after a baby is born).

Over the 19th and 20th centuries, the symptoms of syphilis have become less severe (not quite as bad). This is partly because there are more treatments that work well, and if they are given early, syphilis does not get as bad. Also, the bacteria that causes syphilis has become weaker.

While there is evidence that can be used to say that either of these ideas are right, there is more evidence for the Columbian hypothesis.

The first written records that talk about an outbreak of syphilis in Europe are from 1494 to 1495. The outbreak happened in Naples, Italy, when France was invading (trying to take over Italy). At other times in history, syphilis was also called the "Great Pox".

In 1905 Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann discovered that syphilis is caused by the *Treponema pallidum* bacteria.

## Related pages
* Sexually transmitted disease
* *Treponema pallidum* bacterium
* Safer sex
* Tuskegee syphilis experiment

## References