Once antibody has been formed, blood tests can be made which will detect syphilis. In the U.S.A. these blood tests are necessary before marriage licences are issued. In many other countries similar tests are made in early pregnancy to make certain that the woman does not infect her unborn baby.
Unless the person is treated during the stage when the ulcer is present (called primary syphilis), the disease will continue to develop. Six to eight weeks after being infected the person feels ill, may have a sore throat or headaches, and usually develops a skin rash. The rash starts as faint pale pink spots on the person’s body, but rapidly spreads to appear on the face. Some infected people develop low, grey-coloured, flat-topped growths around the anus, or in the mouth (where they look like snail tracks and are called mucous patches). These lesions can last for up to 12 months and then disappear. They are called the secondary stage of syphilis. The final stage in a person who has untreated syphilis is unpleasant. Some people with the untreated disease develop chronic painful ulcers on the skin or, worse, in a bone. In some, the disease affects the brain causing mental decay.
All the horrible outcomes can be avoided if a man who develops a painless ulcer on his penis between 10 and 90 days after sexual intercourse goes to a doctor for the cause of the ulcer to be diagnosed.
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