The Ocular Syphilis Disease

To have a test done to check for the presence of syphilis, you must see a physician who then swabs the ulcer or sore and sends it off to the lab where it is then checked for the infection. A simple blood test can also detect the infection as well if you don’t have any current signs.

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.

Women that have syphilis and go untreated can be at risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, blindness or stroke. There has even been a rise in newborns they are born with syphilis. There are several reasons into why there is an increase in the Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Some of the reasons are both race and gender have multiple correlates that may account for these differences, including cultural expectations, experience of sexual victimization, socio-economic status, access to community resources, education, and poor family environment. There are several myths out there about sexually transmitted disease such catching it from a toilet seat, you can’t get an STD the first time having sex, or that only people that have sex with multiple partners get sexually transmitted

The parasite is passed from an infected person to an uninfected person during sex. In women, the most commonly infected part of the body is the lower genital tract (vulva, vagina, or urethra), and in men, the most commonly infected body part is the inside of the penis (urethra). During sex, the parasite is usually transmitted from a penis to a vagina, or from a vagina to a penis, but it can also be passed from a vagina to another vagina. It is not common for the parasite to infect other body parts, like the hands, mouth, or anus.

Syphilis is a bacterial infection commonly spread by sexual contact which starts as a painless sore which then leads to a body rash and lastly, it can end up affecting the internal organs. This infection can affect all ages both male and female. The infection can only be treated by certain medications or vising a specialist.

Syphilis can be treated with a dose of antibiotics such as penicillin if taken action in the first stages. Blood tests can confirm the presence of antibodies that the body produces to fight infections. The antibodies to the bacteria that cause syphilis remaining your body for year, so test can be used to determine past and current infection. Another way is scraping a small sample of cells from a sore to be analyzed by microscope in a lab, or collecting a sample of cerebrospinal fluid. When under treatment you must restrict yourself from having any form of sexual contact with anyone until completely healed. Although if you have had therapy and damage has been done to the body for example the brain, the treatment will not undo any damage. It is extremely important to seek medical care

The healthcare provider can diagnose syphilis by taking a sample of fluid from a suspicious ulcer and having that fluid examined under a microscope for the presence of syphilis bacteria; or also can be easily diagnosed with a quick and inexpensive blood test at the doctor's office or at a public health clinic. However, a FTA-ABS is commonly used as a confirmatory test following positive VDRL or RPR test findings. FTA-ABS has a sensitivity of 84% for detecting primary syphilis infection and almost 100% sensitivity for detecting syphilis infection in other stages. Its specificity is 96% (Clement et al.,

The other theory on the origin of syphilis is known as the Old World/ Pre-Columbian Theory. It holds that syphilis originated in central Africa and was introduced to Europe prior to the voyage of Christopher Columbus and was unrecognized and confused with other disease such as leprosy or was actually less virulent before the late 1400's and that the social turmoil, urbanization, and promiscuity of that era created unique conditions suitable for the arrival of a

Syphilis described as a sexually transmitted infection treponema pallidum bacterium, that can also pass straight through any scrape or cut into the bloodstream. A person can get syphilis just by touching the sore of an infected person. Thus, as with chlamydia and gonorrhea, syphilis according to the Center for Control Disease that it was over 36,00 new cases in 2008 with worldwide its about 12 million cases in Africa and Asia. (King et al.). Syphilis is more common in African American; there were over 100 million deaths worldwide due to syphilis. Syphilis can cause rashes from your head to your feet can cause blindness and as well as death. (King et al.).

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,

Syphilis affects the body in four stages: primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary. The first stage, the primary stage, begins to show symptoms approximately 3 weeks after contraction (“STD Facts-Syphilis” 2010). The first stage is marked by the appearance of a chancre sore, which usually appears at the sight of contraction of the bacteria. A chancre is a “small, hard, circular lesion” and this is where the bacteria grows and is highly contagious (Shmaefsky, Brian 2009). After about 3 weeks of the presence of the chancre sores, the sores go away, however, syphilis is still present in the body. Several weeks later, approximately 3-6 weeks, the secondary stage of syphilis begins to show, the skin rash. Characteristics of the rash include “rough, red, or reddish brown spots both on the palms of the hands and the bottoms of the feet”, also it can spread to other parts of the body (“STD Facts-Syphilis” 2010). The symptoms of secondary syphilis will go away in a few weeks, but without proper treatment, the disease will continue to advance. The next stage of syphilis is the latent stage, or the “hidden” stage, this stage happens after the primary and secondary stage of syphilis. Without

In most parts of Africa and Asia, syphilis infection has a higher prevalence and has been discovered in refugees settling in Australia (prevalence rate between 5 to 8 percent).

Treponema pallidum, a pathogenic bacteria that is responsible for a dangerous multistage, sexually transmitted disease called Syphilis. This disease has been rapidly growing and is very easily infectious. Many people will mistaken it for a different disease and the average amount of time for symptoms to show is 21 days. It is curable within the first two stages, but once it moves onto the late/latent stages, it’s almost incurable due to damages that took place. There are more than one type of antibiotic to treat it and multiple different tests to determine if someone is infected with Syphilis. So even if this disease is easily contracted, there are preventative precautions that can be taken place and treatment that aren’t too difficult and time consuming.

A person can get some STDs, such as herpes or genital warts, through skin to skin contact with an infected area or sore. Another myth about the spread of STDs is that you can’t get it if you have oral or anal sex. It is also wrong because the viruses or bacteria that cause STDs can enter the body through tiny cuts or tears in the mouth and anus, as well as the genitals . STDs also spread easily because you can’t tell whether someone has an infection. In fact, some people with STDs don’t even know that they have them because infections often do not cause any symptoms. Medically, infections are only called diseases when they cause symptoms. These people are in danger of passing an infection on to their sex partners without even realizing it.

The traditional algorithm for syphilis screening has involved use of a manual non-treponemal test (e.g. rapid plasma reagin, RPR) followed by confirmation with a treponemal test (e.g. Treponema pallidum particle agglutination, TP-PA). Non-treponemal tests are inexpensive, but require significant hands-on time by laboratory personnel and produce subjective results. High volume laboratories are increasingly using a reverse sequence algorithm, using partially or fully automated treponemal tests (e.g. enzyme immunoassay-EIA, chemiluminescene immunoassay-CIA, multibead immunoassay-MBIA), followed by a non-treponemal test (e.g. RPR, VDRL) if reactive (1). Potential advantages of the reverse sequence algorithm include reduced labor