Essay on Syphilis

Syphilis is spread through contact with a syphilis sore (Syphilis). It has a wide range of side effects, and if left untreated can turn into a serious problem. There are several tests for syphilis, including blood, tissue, and fluid (from syphilis sores) tests. The rapid plasma regain test (RPR test), for example, tests blood or spinal fluid for syphilis antibodies (or T Pallidum antibodies), but because these antibodies are nonspecific to syphilis, this can result in a false positive. The enzyme immunoassay (EIA) test is the second test used to confirm syphilis in someone who tested positive in the RPR test. It also tests for syphilis antibodies. Its treatment has evolved a lot. In the 1940s, it was treated primarily by penicillin, which is most likely what Henrietta Lacks would have used to be treated for this disease if she got proper treatment (Progress). Now, a variety of antibiotics are used to treat syphilis, including penicillin. The dosage is small in the early stages but increased later. Harm done in the third stage cannot be reversed though

Syphilis is a rare sexually transmitted disease that causes serious health problems and complications if left untreated. This disease has stages and many symptoms. Both genders can contract it, but it can be cured and certainly prevented.

The men were never given adequate treatment for their disease. Even when penicillin became the drug of choice for syphilis in 1947

(Tuskegee University) Out of the 600 African American men, the United States Public Health Service refused to treat 399 of the men who were diagnosed with syphilis with late stage. From these men, “perhaps more than 100 had died directly from advanced syphilitics lessons.” (Brandt) From the Tuskegee University, it’s stated that the doctors and researches used the excuse of bad blood in order to get men participating.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study did not only affect the participants, it also created a path for families to be unknowingly infected with syphilis. As Yoon revealed, “Since 1975, the Government… providing lifetime medical benefits to the 22 wives, 17 children, and 2 grandchildren with syphilis they may have contracted as a direct result of the lack of treatment accorded the men in the study.” Because participants were uninformed that they were infected with syphilis, they innately went on with their daily life, which included sexual intercourse. This is how the horrific disease of syphilis was spread to their significant others and children; however, the participants’ and families’ physical health was not the only aspect of their health affected. Through research, Yoon

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) that is characterized by sores known as chancres. These sores are typically found on the external genitals. There are three stages to the disease: Primary, Secondary and Latent/Late. Syphilis can also spread to the neurological systems as well as the ocular system. In the primary stage one or more of the chancres may appear where the infection has entered the body. The sores aren’t painful and may last three to six weeks (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). The

One of the ongoing debates occurring during this time was the possibility of racial variation in the effects of syphilis. A Public Health Service doctor by the name of Taliaferro Clark suggested that this syphilis study would not fail by studying the effects of syphilis on untreated living subjects. Taliaferro Clark’s suggestion was adopted and a study set in motion.

The study took place in Macon County, Alabama where a large number of African Americans were infected with syphilis. Although the study was aimed at discovering whether blacks react to syphilis in the same way as whites, and determine how long a human being can live with untreated syphilis. Due to the African Americans having lack of education, they suffered tremendously at the hands of doctors from the US Public Health Service. When the study was initiated there were no proven treatments for the disease. So the researchers told African American patients they were being treated for “bad blood.” The treatments for syphilis in the early 1930’s offered more potential harm than benefit for the patient so little harm was done by not treating the men in the study.

“He who knows syphilis, knows medicine” famed early twentieth-century John Hopkins physician Sir William Osler is often quoted as saying (Reverby). The Tuskegee syphilis experiment is one of the worst cases in human history of unethical practices done. Between 1932 and 1972 the U.S. Public Health Service study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African American men in Macon County, Alabama. These men were told that they were receiving free health care from the U.S. government because they had “Bad Blood”. A local term for various illnesses that include syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. The study had six hundred patients in which three hundred and ninety-nine of them previously had the STD. Two hundred and one did not have it at the

Thus firstly, past medical treatments provided and studies for syphilis were largely influenced by social darwinism ideology, common usage of African Americans as test subjects, and present knowledge about syphilis at the time, contributed to this study experiment being performed.

Tuskegee Syphilis Study was originally a program to help improve the health of poor African Americans in the south, but later on, in the program, a dark turn was taken, and it ended up harming African Americans instead of helping. Starting in the 1900s syphilis was a widely spread sexually transmitted disease. In 1905 Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffman discovered the bacteria that causes syphilis and then a year later August Wassermann introduced the first diagnostic blood test to identify syphilis (page 747). Then, in 1911 Paul Ehrlich created salvarsan, and although it could not treat syphilis it could halt the disease and prevent it from being infectious (page 747). Unfortunately, these events lead to the U.S. Public Health Service and Julius Rosenwald Fund creating a program to diagnose and treat syphilis in African Americans down in Mason County, Alabama (page 747).

Prior to 1932 information concerning the origin, conception, development, and the complications of untreated syphilis was known to medical science. The one element left to be known about this disease was a cure. By this time, scientist were well aware of the fact that syphilis was a highly contagious disease caused by treponema pallidum, a microscopic organism resembling a corkscrew. The disease may be acquired, meaning passed from person-to-person either during sexual intercourse or mixing of bodily fluids, or congenital meaning obtained through birth. The disease progresses in three stages: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The

Syphilis is one of the oldest sexually transmitted diseases in the world. The first recording of Syphilis was in Europe in 1495, but there is believed to be earlier cases that weren’t recognized. “The transatlantic origin of syphilis is still controversial as there was evidence of an endemic syphilis in Asia Minor before 1492” (JG, 1990) . There has not been a definitive origin for this disease and there were several different hypotheses on how it came to the United States. There have been 2 main theories proposed. The first was the New World or Columbian theory and the Old World or pre-Columbian theory. The first theory holds that the syphilis endemic started in the part of the world now known as Haiti and was then acquired and carried to Europe by Columbus in the 1400s. The second theory, pre-Columbian theory implies that syphilis began in central Africa and was brought to Europe prior to the voyage by Columbus. Recent studies have shown genetic differences between these organisms. Regardless of where the beginning of syphilis started, by 1495 a widespread syphilis epidemic had spread throughout Europe, and then on to India in 1498 and China in 1505. Since its discovery in Europe there have been many speculations that many famous ranging from political figures, musicians and some literary greats may have had syphilis. Some of those were Adolf Hitler, Ivan the Terrible, Henry VIII, Shakespeare, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Lenin (Vladimir Ulyanov), Friedrich Nietzsche,

Although it is easily preventable, over 36,000 cases of syphilis are reported annually in the United States alone (“STD Facts-Syphilis” 2010). Treponema pallidum is the bacterium that causes syphilis. Being one of the most common STDs, syphilis is a bacterial sexually transmitted disease that acts quite differently from the other common STDs because it acts in stages. Fortunately, there are antibiotics to cure syphilis; however, there are not cures for the other health related problems that it causes.

Sexually transmitted diseases are known as STDs or STIs, which stands for sexually transmitted infections. STDs and STIs are infectious diseases that spread from person to person through intimate contact. STDs affect guys and girls of all ages and backgrounds who are having sex, including oral and anal sex, and having skin to skin contact with an infected area or sore. Common STDs include Genital Herpes, Genital Warts, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis A, B, and C.