Stages of Syphilis

Syphilis is a disease that progresses through 3 distinct stages. Sometimes, people experience all 3 stages, whereas, sometimes all stages are not evident.

• Primary Syphilis: In this stage, person may feel firm, red and wet sores on various body parts like rectum, vagina, penis or mouth. These sores do not hurt and known as chancre. It often happens that after a few weeks, these sores will disappear, but it does not imply that disease has gone away. Due to no pain and early disappearance of chancre, the disease is considered as highly contagious in the initial stage.

• Secondary Syphilis: Normally, secondary phase will develop approximately 4-10 weeks after wet sores. Person will experience flu-like symptoms in the stage. Secondary stage lasts for 1-2 weeks. With or without treatment, secondary stage will also go away, but infection will continue to progress if left untreated.

• Tertiary Syphilis: It is a final stage as presence of bacteria can be judged by the damages caused by it to the body or through a blood test.

Written by: healthplus24 team
Date last updated: July 02, 2011

• Symptoms of Syphilis
• Diagnosis of Syphilis
• Treatment of Syphilis