An ancient disease is making a comeback. Are you at risk?

Rates of syphilis are growing around the world, with potentially serious consequences.

Syphilis is an old disease that not many people think about these days. It hasn’t gone away though, and in fact, rates in the USA are the highest they’ve been in 40 years. In Australia, more than 1700 new infections are diagnosed each year.

The problem is, a lot of cases don’t get diagnosed, for several reasons:

• Around half of people with syphilis get no symptoms at all, therefore are unaware they’re infected.
• The initial symptoms are usually mild and go away on their own. People are often embarrassed to see their doctor about a genital sore, and once it goes away they think they’re in the clear.
• Many doctors are unfamiliar with syphilis, as its symptoms can mimic those of several other conditions. Doctors have mistaken the sores of syphilis for cancer, abscesses, hemorrhoids, hernias, among other conditions.

The incidence of syphilis is highest among men who have sex with men, but anyone can become infected. Australian doctors have proposed low dose antibiotics (doxycycline) be given to high risk men prophylactically to reduce the rates of infection. In Australia rates of syphilis are 1000 times more common in men who have sex with men than the general population.

Syphilis is a bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum, a spiral-shaped bacterium known as a spirochete. Syphilis is transmitted through close skin-to-skin contact and is highly contagious when the syphilis sore (chancre) or rash is present. You can catch syphilis through oral, vaginal or anal sex with a person who has recently become infected. Syphilis can also be transmitted from mother to baby during pregnancy and at birth, although this is rare in developed nations.

What are the symptoms of syphilis?

Syphilis can progress in 3 stages if not treated promptly. A person is only infectious during the first 2 stages. The first stage of syphilis may cause no symptoms at all, or there could be a sore on any part of the body that has come in contact with an infected lesion – typically on the penis, vagina, vulva, mouth, anus or tongue. The lesion is painless and typically heals within 4 weeks.

The second stage produces a rash – typically on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and sometimes on the entire body.   Some people also experience swollen lymph glands and mild joint pain. The third stage of syphilis is the most serious because it can affect several organs of the body; particularly the brain and heart. The bacterium that causes syphilis can invade the nervous system, travel to the brain and cause a type of dementia.

Syphilis is treated with intramuscular penicillin injections.

How to prevent syphilis

• You can greatly reduce your risk of contracting syphilis in the following ways:
• Practice safe sex. Always use a condom if you’re not certain of your partner’s health status, and remember that syphilis can be contracted through oral sex.
• Have a blood test for sexually transmitted infections regularly if you engage in sex with a new partner.
• See your doctor if you notice a lesion that doesn’t heal within a week.

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