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Syphilis is a bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum. It is a sexually transmitted disease that spreads through direct contact with a syphilitic sore. These sores can appear on the external genitals, vagina, anus, rectum, mouth and lips. Syphilis is usually transmitted during sexual activity, but may be transmitted non-sexually by skin contact with a sore. It can spread from an infected mother to her unborn baby, resulting in a life-threatening condition called congenital syphilis. Syphilis may also spread through blood transfusion or contaminated needles.
Syphilis has acute and chronic forms that affect most of the organs of the body and produce a wide range of symptoms. HIV and syphilis are closely linked. Patients with syphilis who suffer from HIV have a higher chance of treatment failure with penicillin compared to those without HIV. Patients with syphilis have a higher chance of acquiring HIV too. If left untreated, syphilis can cause irreversible damage to the nerves, brain and body tissues. Men, specifically homosexuals, are more susceptible to contracting syphilis than women. The infection is most often found among individuals between 15 and 39 years of age.
Congenital syphilis is diagnosed when a child is born with syphilis, transferred from the mother during pregnancy. Acquired syphilis, that occurs in adolescence or adulthood, occurs in 3 distinct stages- primary, secondary and tertiary, with a stage of latency in between:
- Primary phase - A painless sore (chancre) appears at the site of infection. A person who touches this infected sore can get infected. This lesion appears 2-3 weeks after being infected and lasts for 3-6 weeks, after which it heals on its own. The disease then progresses to the second stage.
- Secondary phase - This phase mimics many other illnesses. It develops 4-10 weeks after the chancre. Common symptoms in the secondary phase are sore throat, fever, joint and muscle pain, rashes all over the body (especially the palms and soles), headache, patchy hair loss, poor appetite and swollen lymph nodes. This phase goes away without treatment, but the disease progresses to the next stage.
- Latent (dormant) phase - Early latent phase occurs in the first 12 months following infection. In this stage, the infected individual has no symptoms, but is still infectious. The late latent phase is when the infection had occurred more than 12 months earlier, and the patients are asymptomatic and usually not infectious. However, the infection may still be transmitted from the mother to her unborn baby and through blood transfusions.
- Tertiary phase - About one third of the patients progress to this stage after many years or decades of latent syphilis. The heart, brain, bones and skin are affected in this stage. The prognosis of the disease in this stage is generally poor. Congenital syphilis results in low-birth-weight babies, still births or babies born with abnormalities. The abnormalities seen include bone and teeth abnormalities; brain infection; heart, liver and kidney enlargement; jaundice; swollen glands; rashes; low blood counts; and failure to thrive.
Syphilis is diagnosed through blood tests, culture from the tissue sample collected from a skin sore, and spinal fluid analysis. It is treated with antibiotics, commonly penicillin. Syphilis can be successfully cured, especially when treated in the early stages. Curing the infection can prevent further damage, but cannot reverse the organ damage that has already occurred.
Homeopathic treatment not only relieves the symptoms but also it helps in removing the infection successfully. It prevents the progression of the disease to subsequent stages. Homeopathic doctors consider the characteristics of the patient’s personality and physiology before prescribing them a remedy and deciding its dose. Common remedies that are used for the treatment of syphilis include include aurum metallicum, fluoricum acidum, kalium iodatum, mercurius solubilis, nitricum acidum, phytolacca decandra, stillingia silvatica and syphilinum.
