Characteristics of spirochetes of syphilis

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Syphilis is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, this is an infectious disease that can affect the skin, mucous membranes and genitals of the patient, in dangerous cases can cause disease. brain and heart, causing dangerous complications.

1. What is syphilis?

Although it is a fairly common sexually transmitted disease, if detected early and treated promptly, syphilis can be treated and does not cause damage or consequences to the patient's body. However, if left untreated, the patient will face unpredictable consequences.
When infected with syphilis bacteria, the patient will see the symptoms of syphilis, these symptoms go through 4 stages including: Stage 1, stage 2, latent stage and stage 3 In particular, there is a case of congenital syphilis that occurs when a child is transmitted from a mother who has syphilis during pregnancy. Congenital syphilis can have serious consequences, causing life-threatening birth defects in the unborn baby. Therefore, pregnant women with syphilis should notify their doctor to have the right treatment, timely, to prevent the transmission of syphilis from mother to child.

2. Characteristics of syphilis bacteria

In terms of shape, syphilis bacteria have a spring spiral, gram-negative, anaerobic, usually each bacterium will have from 8 to 11 helices of equal volume and close to each other, they can be mobile with very specific characteristics. soft, the size of bacteria causing syphilis is 5-15 x 0.1 - 0.3 mm. The morphology of the syphilis bacteria can be clearly seen on a black background microscope. Syphilis bacteria are difficult to stain, usually Giemsa stain or methyl purple stain, Fontana-Tribondeau stain.

3. How long do syphilis bacteria live?

Syphilis bacteria have no shell and do not produce spores, they reproduce by dividing horizontally at a rate of about every 30 hours. The syphilis bacteria when mature are very long, they will fold into a V shape and break in half.
Bacteria that cause syphilis have a very weak resistance, so they are easy to die when they come out of the body that they parasitize, antiseptics, soaps, high temperatures and cold will make syphilis spirochetes easy died. However, this bacteria has good cold tolerance, lives for many years, so it has strong pathogenicity.

4. How is syphilis diagnosed?

All humans are born with no immunity to syphilis, if infected with this disease and treated in time, after recovering from the disease, there will be homozygous immunity, but it is also unstable. There is no heterogenic immunity to syphilis.
Direct syphilis diagnostic tests are usually done in the early stages of the disease, the doctor may recommend taking a sample of the sores or plague from nearby areas of the patient's body. pressed drops. View under a black background microscope, observe the shape and motility of the spirochetes.
For serological diagnosis for syphilis, usually from the 10th day onwards and the patient will have blood drawn to separate the sera as a reaction.
After diagnosing the disease, doctors will proceed to treat syphilis with appropriate antibiotics. Each stage of syphilis will have different treatments. Doctors regularly test blood during treatment to make sure the patient is completely cured or not.

5. Prevention of syphilis infection

Syphilis is a very contagious disease, especially through unprotected sex. Therefore, each person needs to actively learn the knowledge related to this disease to take proactive, effective and safe measures to prevent syphilis, it should be noted:
In all circumstances, sexual relations are necessary. Safety education to prevent syphilis in particular and for groups at high risk of infection in general. Once infected, do not arbitrarily stop taking medicine to treat syphilis or change the dose without your doctor's approval. Tell your doctor right away if you are pregnant and suspect that you have syphilis, transmitting syphilis from mother to fetus is very dangerous. Maintain clean, regular hygiene to avoid transmission of syphilis. Build a healthy, faithful, monogamous lifestyle. Tell your sex partner about syphilis treatment so they can get tested. Avoid sex for at least 2 weeks after treatment or until your doctor tells you to. Carry out screening for social diseases in order to detect early to have effective treatment and avoid complications of syphilis. Vinmec International General Hospital offers a package of Examination and Screening for social diseases to help customers detect diseases early and have effective treatment and prevent dangerous complications. The screening package for social diseases at Vinmec is for all ages, both men and women.
To register for examination and treatment at Vinmec International General Hospital, you can contact Vinmec Health System nationwide, or register online HERE.
MORE:
How is syphilis treated? Where is syphilis lesions common in women? What to do when pregnant with a sexually transmitted disease?