Syphilis Case Studies

Topic of Introduction Syphilis has been a major public health problem in all healthcare organizations worldwide since the 1500s. Despite numerous prevention and intervention efforts, the overall rates of the case of syphilis in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have not decreased significantly over time. In fact, according to Sally Ho, “the latest available data, from 2014, showed a 15 percent increase in cases overall, the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention said. A majority of cases involved men having sex with men” (Ho 2016). Syphilis is transmitted from person to person through chancre contact in the mouth or through genital contact. By nature, it is fatal and devastating not only to the patient, family, and friends, but to the professional staff, community and the nation at large. The doctors and health care providers are aware of the increase of syphilis cases over the past decades and are blaming social media because of “anonymous sex through social media, particularly with an increase in the use of smartphone apps…Young people dependent on their iPhones can find quick, easy access …show more content…
Not everyone with syphilis reaches this stage because the disease still remains “latent” for the rest of his or her life. However, people come to this final stage of syphilis when syphilis unknowingly decides to wake up and continue to attack other organs any time after the first year of infection. It is unknown to scientists the causes or biological reasons of why the bacteria becoming active after the latent stage. What makes this stage different from the previous stages is that the disease starts attacking and penetrating into the nervous system. The invasion of the nervous system causes abnormalities in the cerebrospinal fluid, elevated white blood cells, etc. Also, the invasion of the nervous systems, following the primary or secondary stage of