Sex

Syphilis

Treponema Pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis, can be found in sores and rashes in the mouth or the genital area. A person becomes infected with syphilis when they have been exposed to moist lesions of skin of an infected person or through sex (vaginal, anal or oral) with an infected person.

The sores that appear 10-90 days after contact with an infected person are usually painless and are accompanied by swollen glands. These sores will eventually disappear even without treatment. A rash will then appear six weeks after the first attack anywhere on the body. In the second stage of attack a person may also suffer from tiredness, fever, sore throat, headaches, hoarseness, loss of appetite and swollen glands. These symptoms will also eventually disappear if untreated, although they may reoccur. After this second stage the only other way a person may be made aware of the disease is through a blood test. Untreated, syphilis can lead to destruction of soft tissue and bone, heart failure, insanity and blindness. A mother can also pass the disease onto her unborn child, which may result in death or deformity of the child.

Treatment: of syphilis is by penicillin or tetracycline. For people who are allergic to penicillin other antibiotics may be prescribed, or a physician may decide that a patient should undergo penicillin desensitisation followed by appropriate penicillin therapy.

Hating to put you off sex, if you think you're hard enough look at some different images of people infected with syphilis.