Syphilis Infection Plasma Samples
Fresh frozen tissue and matched biofluid samples were, collected from unique patients diagnosed with Syphilis.
Bio-samples are provided to a valued pharmaceutical customer for research, diagnostics, discovery, and drug development.
Syphilis Infection Overview
Syphilis is divided into stages (primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary). There are different signs and symptoms associated with each stage.
The first sign of syphilis is a small, painless sore. It can appear on the skin or mucous membranes of the vagina, anus, rectum, lips, or inside the mouth. This sore is called a chancre and usually it doesn’t itch. Most people often fail to notice it right away.
These sores resolve on their own. However, if a person does not receive treatment, the bacteria remain in the body. They can remain dormant in the body for decades before reactivating and damaging organs, including the brain.
Syphilis is most likely to spread during oral, anal, or vaginal sexual activity. People rarely pass the bacteria on through kissing.
Syphilis can be challenging to diagnose. Someone can have it without showing any symptoms for years. However, the earlier syphilis is discovered, the better. Syphilis that remains untreated for a long time can cause major damage to important organs, like the heart and brain.
Syphilis is only spread through direct contact with syphilitic chancres. It can’t be transmitted by sharing a toilet with another person, wearing another person’s clothing, or using another person’s eating utensils.
Stages of Syphilis Infection
Syphilis is divided into stages. There are different signs and symptoms associated with each stage.
Following are the four stages of syphilis infection:
- Primary
- Secondary
- Latent
- Tertiary
Syphilis is most infectious in the first two stages, which is primary stage and secondary stage.
When syphilis is in the hidden, or latent, stage, the disease remains active but often with no symptoms. Tertiary syphilis is the most destructive to health.
Other types of syphilis include:
Signs and Symptoms of Syphilis Infection
Primary Syphilis
The primary stage of syphilis occurs about three to four weeks after a person contracts the bacteria. It begins with a small, round sore called a chancre. A chancre is painless, but it’s highly infectious. This sore may appear wherever the bacteria entered the body, such as on or inside the mouth, genitals, or rectum.
On average, the sore shows up around three weeks after infection, but it can take between 10 and 90 days (3 weeks on average) after you’re exposed to the disease. The sore remains for anywhere between two to six weeks.
Syphilis is transmitted by direct contact with a sore. This usually occurs during sexual activity, including oral sex.
Secondary Syphilis
This stage begins 6 weeks to 6 months after a person is exposed to syphilis infection, and It may last 1 to 3 months.
Patients with secondary syphilis usually get a rosy “copper penny” rash on the palms of their hands and soles of their feet. They may also have different rashes on other parts of their body.
These may look like rashes caused by other diseases. Patients may have moist, wart-like, lesions in their groin, white patches on the inside of their mouth, swollen lymph nodes, fever, fatigue, hair loss, stress and weight loss weight loss.
Skin rashes and a sore throat may develop during the second stage of syphilis. The rash won’t itch and is usually found on the infected patients palms and soles, but it may occur anywhere on the body. Some people don’t notice the rash before it goes away.
Other symptoms of secondary syphilis may include:
- Anxiety
- Aching joints
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Hair loss
- Stress
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Unexplained weight loss
These symptoms will go away whether or not treatment is received. However, without treatment, a person still has syphilis.
Secondary syphilis is often mistaken for another condition.
Latent Syphilis
The third stage of syphilis is the latent, or hidden, stage. The primary and secondary symptoms disappear, and there won’t be any noticeable symptoms at this stage. However, the bacteria remain in the body. This stage could last for years before progressing to tertiary syphilis.
Tertiary Syphilis
Tertiary syphilis can occur years or decades after the initial infection. Tertiary syphilis can be life-threatening. Some other potential outcomes of tertiary syphilis include:
- Blindness
- Deafness
- Destruction of soft tissue and bone
- Mental illness
- Memory loss
- Neurological disorders, such as stroke or meningitis
- Heart disease
- Neurosyphilis, which is an infection of the brain or spinal cord
Diagnosis of Syphilis Infection
Your doctor will need to do a physical exam. They might give you following tests:
- Blood tests. A quick test at your doctor’s office or at the hospital can diagnose syphilis.
- Cerebrospinal fluid tests. If your doctor thinks you might have neurosyphilis, they’ll test fluid taken from around your spinal cord.
- Darkfield microscopy. Syphilis bacteria are visible through a microscope in fluid taken from a skin sore or lymph node.
Treatment of Syphilis Infection
Syphilis is curable with quick diagnosis and treatment. Primary and secondary syphilis are easy to treat with a penicillin injection.
Penicillin is one of the most widely used antibiotics and is usually effective in treating syphilis. Patients who are allergic to penicillin will likely be treated with a different antibiotic, such as the following:
- Azithromycin
- Ceftriaxone
- Doxycycline
If you have neurosyphilis, you’ll get daily doses of penicillin intravenously. This will often require a brief hospital stay.
During treatment, make sure to avoid sexual contact until all sores on your body are healed and your doctor tells you it’s safe to resume sex. If you’re sexually active, your partner should be treated as well. Don’t resume sexual activity until you and your partner have completed treatment.
Complications of Syphilis Infection
If the infected patient doesn’t get treatment, syphilis can have complications all over the body:
-
Small Bumps: Bumps called gummas can grow on your skin, bones, or organs. They can destroy the tissue around them.
-
Nervous System Problems: Syphilis can cause problems like headaches, meningitis, brain damage, paralysis, or hearing and vision loss.
-
Cardiovascular Problems: The disease can damage the heart valves or cause bulging blood vessels (aneurysms) or an inflamed aorta (aortitis).
-
HIV: Syphilis can increase your chance of getting HIV.
Syphilis and Pregnancy
The CDC says women should be tested for syphilis at least once during pregnancy. It’s best if they’re tested at their first prenatal visit.
These signs and symptoms can be very serious. Untreated babies may have delays in their development, have seizures, or die.
Jarisch-Herxheimer Reaction
It is a reaction to treatment and not an allergic reaction to penicillin. Patients should be informed about this possible adverse reaction and how to manage it if it occurs.
The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction occurs most frequently among persons who have early syphilis, presumably because bacterial loads are higher during these stages.
Management of Sex Partners
Persons exposed through sexual contact with a person who has primary, secondary, or early latent syphilis should be evaluated clinically and serologically and treated according to the following recommendations:
- Persons who have had sexual contact with an infected person who receives a diagnosis of primary, secondary, or early latent syphilis less than 90 days before the diagnosis should be treated presumptively for early syphilis, even if serologic test results are negative.
- Long-term sex partners of persons who have late latent syphilis should be evaluated clinically and serologically for syphilis and treated on the basis of the evaluation’s findings.
HIV Infection
Persons with HIV infection who have primary or secondary syphilis should be treated similarly to those without HIV (see Syphilis Among Persons with HIV Infection).
Patients with syphilis have a significantly increased chance of contracting HIV. The sores the disease cause make it easier for HIV to enter the body.
It’s also important to note that those with HIV may experience different syphilis symptoms than those who don’t have HIV. If you have HIV, talk to your doctor about how to recognize syphilis symptoms.
Testing for Syphilis Infection
A person should get tested if they had any of the following:
- Are pregnant
- Had unprotected sex (without a condom) with someone who have syphilis
- A man who have sex with men
- Have unprotected sex (without condom) with multiple partners
- Are in prison
- Have a partner who have unprotected sex (without condom) with multiple people
- Are a sex worker
If the syphilis test comes back positive, it’s important for the infected person to complete the full treatment. Infected person must finish the full course of antibiotics, even if their symptoms disappear. Also avoid all sexual activity until your doctor tells you that it’s safe to do so. An infected person should also get tested for HIV as well.
Patients who have tested positive for syphilis should notify all of their recent sexual partners so that they can also get tested and get treatment.
- Peripheral whole-blood
- Amniotic fluid
- Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL)
- Sputum
- Pleural effusion
- Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
- Serum (sera)
- Plasma
- Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC)
- Saliva
- Buffy coat
- Urine
- Stool samples
- Aqueous humor
- Vitreous humor
- Kidney stones (renal calculi)
- Other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer.
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