May be asymptomatic
Recently, Ho Chi Minh City Dermatology Hospital tested and discovered 2 patients with rare malignant syphilis, on the basis of HIV patients, homosexual.
Syphilis is no longer strange to medical specialists and the community. Diagnosis is based on patient examination combined with paraclinical tests. If not diagnosed and treated early, the disease can progress throughout the body.
Abdominal ulcer of patient with malignant syphilis is stable after treatment
According to the Ministry of Health's guidelines for diagnosing and treating syphilis, this disease is transmitted from person to person through sexual contact and is caused by the syphilis spirochete Treponema pallidum. The disease can cause damage to the skin and mucous membranes. If left untreated, it can cause damage to other tissues and organs of the body such as muscles, bones, joints, cardiovascular system and nerves.
Syphilis bacteria enter the body of a healthy person through vaginal, anal or oral sex.
The disease can also be transmitted indirectly through contaminated objects or through scratches on the skin or mucous membranes. In addition, the disease can be transmitted through blood or from a mother with syphilis to her child during pregnancy.
Still causing disease after decades of invasion
Syphilis, if left undiagnosed and untreated, can last for many years and is divided into two stages: early syphilis and late syphilis.
Notably, late syphilis includes: late latent syphilis (no clinical manifestations) and duration of infection over 2 years); tertiary syphilis (with lesions that penetrate deep into the skin, mucous membranes, cardiovascular system, and nervous system).
With late latent syphilis stage 3, the disease can affect any organ in the body, even occurring 30 years after the initial infection. This case has typical clinical manifestations of neurological manifestations (neurosyphilis), cardiovascular manifestations (cardiovascular syphilis)...
Neurosyphilis can occur at any stage of the disease. Early neurological symptoms include acute mental status changes, meningitis, stroke, cranial nerve dysfunction, and hearing, eye, and vision abnormalities.
Late neurosyphilis may occur 10 to 30 years or more after the time of infection and is characterized by damage to the posterior nerve roots of the spine and generalized paralysis.
With cardiovascular syphilis, the disease often manifests as aortitis, aortic aneurysm, aortic valve regurgitation, coronary artery stenosis, and in some cases myocarditis.
According to the Department of Preventive Medicine (Ministry of Health), syphilis spirochetes only cause disease in humans. Both men and women are at risk of contracting the disease if they have unprotected sex. People who have had syphilis and have been cured can still get it again if they have unsafe sex.
To prevent infection, it is necessary to practice safe sex, protected sex (use condoms), and be monogamous. In case of detecting or suspecting the disease, go to a medical facility for examination and treatment immediately, do not buy medicine for treatment yourself. With congenital syphilis, it is necessary to promptly detect and treat the mother.
Syphilis is diagnosed through clinical examination and testing of specimens and blood samples of the patient.
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