Syphilis is a disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum.
Treponema enters the body through the vagina, mouth or through the skin. The bacterium .
reaches the nearby lymph node within hours, spreading through the body via the blood. .
Syphilis is a bacteria not a virus, so it can be treated. "Syphilis can also infect a pregnant .
fetus, causing problems and birth defects(Human Disease 938)".
During World War II, a number of people with syphilis was discovered.
The number of cases steadily fell until 1960, cases dramatically increased again. .
Throughout their time, a numerous cases of syphilis were found in homosexual men. .
"Numbers remained the same until the mid-1980s(Human Disease 938)". Because of the .
AIDS epidemic and the results of practicing safe sex.
The incidence of syphilis among homosexual men fell. While new cases .
of syphilis among crack-cocaine users-primarily women or their showed a rapid increase .
also affecting their newborn. "Focused programs of control have again reduced the .
incidence of syphilis in most areas in the United States(Human Disease 939)". A person .
who has been cured and can become re-infected with syphilis usually within 1 to 13 .
weeks, but the average is 3 to 4 weeks. .
Treponema pallidum progresses through several stages: the primary, .
secondary, latent, and tertiary stages. "This infection may persist for many years and .
uncommonly causes heart damage, brain damage, and death(Human Disease 939)". A .
painless sore or ulcer (chancre) appears at the infection site. The chancre often appears .
on the penis, or on the vagina. Also, the chancre can appear on the anus, rectum, lips, .
.
tongue, throat, cervix or fingers, rarely other parts of the body. The first stage of syphilis .
involves the breakout of a sore. A person afflicted with syphilis has only one sore, but .
several sores can develop. A chancre begins as a small, red, raised area. Soon it turns .