Syphilis Explained: Causes, Stages, and Diagnostic Tests

welcome to the section on syphilis syphilis is caused by a Spyro type of bacteria called treponema padum

usually we can see this with a dark field microscope after this um bacterium has been fluorescently stained when we

talk about Spyro it actually is in a spiral shape usually we treat it with Penicillin it's transmitted by direct

contact it's usually a veneral disease and it can also be transmitted via the placenta to the

fetus some of the signs and symptoms include upon entrance to the body the bacteria is carried by the blood to

every organ in the body the incubation period is usually about 3 weeks but can range from 10 to 90

days primary syphilis is a development of a characteristic primary lesion called a Shanker and it's usually only a

single Shanker that's present it's commonly located around the genitalia well after a few weeks usually

the Shanker goes away then we go into secondary syphilis usually within 2 to 8 weeks after appearance of a Shanker we

find headache sore throat low-grade fever occasional nasal drainage blood tests also show moderate increase in

wbc's with an increase in lymphocytes this usually progresses to lesions of the skin and mucous membranes

and lymphadenopathy which is swalling of the lymph ndes well after a little while this

Shanker goes away as well we then enter what's called latent or tertiary

syphilis this non-infectious state is um usually when a diagnosis can only be made by serological Method such as a

blood draw after 2 to four years of infection secondary syphilis signs will reoccur during relapses patients are

infectious usually 1/3 will develop tertiary syphilis this is seen at the 3 to 10 year mark we see lesions produced

um the skeletal system can be affected we see cardiovascular and Central Nervous um systems being affected and we

can even have congenital syphilis which is caused by the spyroy transferring through across the

placenta some of the things we can do to check to see if somebody has syphilis are looking for two different classes

specific and non-specific types of um antigens sometimes we look for the specific antigen on the Spate itself but

other times we're looking for a um antibody called a Reagan antibody there are um the presence of

two types we can do the non-treponemal which looks for the Reagan antibody doing a vdrl and an RP we'll talk about

those in a second or a tropinal which is looking for the exact Spyro called the FTA

ABS the vdrl stands for veneral disease research laboratory this is a non-rep anbal method um it's a floculation test

which is the soluble antigen particles will form larger particles which become visible this is a test we do on spinal

fluid rpr is called a rapid plasma ragen test this is a non-treponemal method looking for that ragen or Reagan

whatever you want to call it most widely used treponemal method there is um we use a floculation type of test for this

as well but it's more commonly done on serum rather than spinal fluid the final one is the fluorescence

treponemal antibody test this one looks for the actual trapa padum organism itself usually this is used as a

confirmation test not a screening test so once the once the rpr or the VL are positive we would follow up with the FTA

ABS test to make sure that it is actually syphilis that is the issue usually we overlay trpes fix to a

slide with serum from a suspected patient we put a fluorescent tag on there and the FTA ABS should always be

followed to confirm a positive rpr or vdrl so we wouldn't just do this right off the bat this is a

confirmation the ABS suffix refers to a particular particularly to a process step using to remove non-specific

anti-par ketal antibodies present so we are testing specifically for the Spyro with this method

there are some famous people who they believe died of syphilis these are kind of fun to read Christopher Columbus um

he was born in 1451 in Genoa Italy and he sailed from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean in 1942 and discovered the route

to America it was believed that the spread of syphilis across the globe was probably sparked by Christopher Columbus

and he became infected with um syphilis who later um died of the disease people say George Washington may

have died of syphilis um it is belied beli that he had syphilis and died because of it however there is no

evidence to back up this claim Napoleon bonapart he was born in 1769 he was the first ruler in the

bonapart dynasty he conquered and ruled much of the western and um Central Europe he was also called the

enlightened Monarch he too suffered from syphilis and probably died due to consumption of arsenic which back then

was a treatment for syphilis so it's kind of a it can treat syphilis but it can also kill you um France Schubert was

born in 1797 he was a a very gifted composer slm musician he is best known for his German

art songs for voice and piano his symphonic work represented the best Legacy of the classical tradition while

his songs exemplify the height of romantic lyricism but he battled with syphilis since 1822 and in the midst of

his career his health deteriorated the cause of his death was consumption of mercury which was also a common

treatment of syphilis in the 19th century so people taking our and people taking syphilis trying to treat

this that concludes our section on syphilis