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An age-old scourge easily treated in modern days with penicillin, it is responsible for the death of gangster Al Capone, among others. Caused by the bacterium Treponema
pallidum, it is also passed through anal, oral or vaginal sex with an infected person.
It causes highly infectious sores on the vagina, the anus, the penis or the mouth.
How Spread:
It is spread through direct contact with these sores and rashes, through injection drug use or from a pregnant mother to her baby.
It's also passed through semen and vaginal fluids, and contact with a skin rash during the later stage.
Symptoms:
Some people have no symptoms or are unaware of a painless sore that appears on the penis, buttocks, vagina, throat or any other place the infection entered the body.
After four to 10 weeks, in the later stage, a rash may appear, there can be patchy hair loss, muscle and joint pain or swollen glands. Without treatment, the infection becomes latent to appear 10 to 20 years later causing serious heart, brain and bone disease.
It is diagnosed through blood tests.
Treatment: Antibiotics, usually penicillin.
Prevention:
Do not have sex at all with people with sores in the genital area. Not even a condom or dental dam can provide protection.
Demographics:
After almost disappearing from the city — there were only 19 cases in 1998 — the numbers have jumped dramatically recently with a total of 279 cases last year. The majority of those infected are older men who have sex with men, and the average age of the infected person was 37.
Few young people are involved so far, although 14 women are infected, which shows that it may be moving over into the heterosexual population.
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