There are a number of certain diseases that occur without symptoms for some period of time. This course of the disease is called latent or latent, and is characterized by the period of reproduction of the pathogen in the human body, not against the background of good health. One of these diseases is latent syphilis: under certain circumstances, this dangerous infection can remain latent for years.
Currently, latent syphilis is less common due to modern programs for mandatory medical screening of the population in hospitals and clinics. Detection tests are included in the list of mandatory examinations for both men and women when applying for medical care, during annual medical examinations and registering pregnant women.
Over the past 5 years, due to the introduction of so many methods for detecting and preventing the spread of the disease, the latent form of syphilis has become less and less common. However, such a trend, when the result is positive during a routine examination and donation of blood for analysis, still exists.
The reason for the late detection of the disease at the stage of long-term infection is the untimely access to doctors.
In this article, we are ready to answer all the questions of patients about what latent syphilis is and how to recognize it. We will also consider treatment regimens, talk about effective treatment for early latent and late detection syphilis, as well as what patients need to do to identify the infection on their own.
Finding treponemal syphilitic infection in a latent form is not observed in all patients. The period of the first manifestations of the disease occurs at the end of the incubation period in 75% of cases. At the same time, in the body of some patients, the infection is present for years after infection, but there are no clinical symptoms of the disease. Such a flow is called latent.
Currently, leading experts in the field of medicine and science believe that several factors influence the rate of development of the disease and the frequency of cases of transition to the latent course of the disease. First of all, this is the state of the immune system, the frequency of taking medications, antibiotics during the period of infection and concomitant pathology.
The fact has been proven that taking any prolongs the incubation period of a syphilitic infection for different periods for each patient. When the first signs appear, which may resemble a cold or flu-like condition, taking antibiotics can directly cause syphilis to go into a latent stage.
With a latent course, the diagnosis of infection with treponemal infection can be confirmed only after several laboratory tests, however, it is not always possible to determine the duration of infection from the analyzes.
Venereologists divide the disease into stages, highlighting separately early latent and late latent syphilis. The presence of an early course of the disease is said when infection with treponemas is assumed no more than two years ago. In cases of a late course of the disease, the period after infection reaches two or more years.
Separately, it is possible to single out patients in whom, after the examination, the period of infection cannot be determined immediately, and then a diagnosis of latent, unspecified syphilis is made with the appointment of additional tests, laboratory and physical. There may also be situations when the diagnosis of unspecified latent syphilis is made during the initial visit, when the patient cannot even indicate the approximate time of his infection.
The latent course of syphilitic infection is characterized by an asymptomatic course. However, throughout the entire period, a patient who secretes treponema is a source of infection for all the people around him. The risk of infection is extremely high during sexual intercourse, using dishes and cutlery containing saliva particles, using shared towels, underwear and hygiene items with remnants of biological fluids and secretions from the genitals.
In cases where there are no symptoms of syphilis infection, infection of family members or partners may occur uncontrollably.
Early latent syphilis occurs for several years from the moment of infection, and in this period there is a transition from the primary stage of the disease to the secondary. Also, the early period of latent syphilis in time interval corresponds to the period from the primary stage with a positive result of serological analysis for the detection of treponema to the period of relapse of the disease during the transition to the secondary stage.
IT'S IMPORTANT TO KNOW!
As the disease progresses, the pathogen spreads throughout the body. penetrate through the lymph nodes into the heart, liver, stomach, intestines and brain, causing irreversible damage to the body as a whole.
Severe symptoms appear only when the disease enters the active phase, however, subject to regular medical examinations, it is possible to detect syphilis even at the stage of latent course.
With the timely detection of treponemal infection in the blood of patients, the treatment of latent syphilis can be successful. Following the recommendations of venereologists, you can return to everyday life in a few months.
Late latent syphilis is determined when the course of the disease is more than two years. Without severe symptoms, such patients may not be contagious to others. However, during the transition of the disease to the tertiary period, the condition of the patients worsens extremely. There is a general defeat of all organs, the circulatory system and the heart, the nervous system. Also, there is a pronounced skin symptomatology, which is quite difficult not to notice (with which patients most often turn to medical institutions).
From the foregoing, it follows that the treatment of syphilis, including the latent form, is vital. In this case, it may turn out to be quite long, but with an integrated approach, the prognosis is favorable.
Diagnosis of the latent course of treponemal infection is based not only on a laboratory study of blood and smears, but also on a complete survey of the patient, clarifying the smallest details of all diseases in recent years.
First of all, the venereologist specifies the circle of persons with whom the patient had contact, sexual relations or contact in everyday life and family, finds out the scope of activity, work, which is extremely important for medical personnel. Often, patients are referred to a venereologist after revealing latent syphilis at an annual physical examination or staging in a antenatal clinic. After the first positive analysis - the Wasserman reaction - additional methods for determining treponema in the blood are shown.
Currently, the diagnosis of syphilis is made only after receiving at least three positive test results from the following list: RIF immune reaction, RIBT reaction to exclude false results, immunoblot to determine the titer of antibodies to the causative agent of treponema, PCR test to detect cellular material and DNA of the causative agent of syphilis . With neurological symptoms, the cerebrospinal fluid is additionally examined. With signs of damage to internal organs, blood biochemistry, kidney and liver tests, a cardiogram, a study of the heart and blood vessels are shown.
The treatment regimen is to prevent the transition of syphilis to a severe form.
When the infection lasts less than two years, treatment is aimed at eliminating the transition and eliminating the epidemiological danger to others, family members and partners.
In cases where the patient has been infected for more than two years, and doctors determine late latent syphilis, the treatment regimen is aimed at eliminating all pathologies of the internal organs and preventing the most serious complications - neurosyphilis, heart attacks and strokes.
The main treatment for syphilis is systemic antibiotic therapy with penicillins or drugs of other groups for allergies and lack of sensitivity to treponema. The treatment regimen is also developed depending on the severity of the organ damage, the manifestations of symptoms from the heart and nervous system. In addition, drugs are used to correct the protective properties of the immune system.
It is no coincidence that the latent course of syphilis is the cause of the epidemiologically dangerous and rapid spread of the disease. Prevention of infection consists not only in medical examinations, but also in timely access to doctors if syphilis infection is suspected.
If you do not know what to do, contact the "Guide to venereology". Our specialists will quickly help you with the choice of a clinic and an experienced venereologist for examination and further consultation.
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Latent syphilis is a form of the disease that occurs without symptoms. It is dangerous because patients are unaware that they are infected. At this time, the infection develops, affecting the internal organs.
In the first two years after infection, patients pose a threat to other people and sexual partners, since the disease is contagious. Infected people are always interested in how latent syphilis develops.
The development of latent syphilis is no different from the causes of infection with the classic form of the disease. Bacteria - pale treponemas - enter the patient's body. Microorganisms begin to multiply. But after the incubation period, the latent form of the disease does not show symptoms.
The fact is that treponemas throw off the shell and penetrate through the membrane into the nucleus of phagocytes. These cells are responsible for the human immune defense. It turns out that bacteria develop, affect the internal organs, hiding behind the shell of phagocytes. The immune system does not recognize bacteria and does not respond.
There are three types of latent syphilis:
Infection is possible after unprotected sex, in a household way (with the constant use of the patient's personal belongings), through saliva, breast milk (from mother to child), during childbirth and through blood (for example: during transfusion).
There are no pronounced symptoms of the disease. But after a thorough examination and history taking, doctors discover indirect signs of latent syphilis. It is similar to other diseases, and therefore there are difficulties in diagnosing the infection.
Indirect symptoms of an early form of the disease include:
In the late type, these symptoms are absent, serological reactions show low titers of reagins. Significant degenerative changes are revealed in the cerebrospinal fluid.
Sometimes in patients in both cases there is an unreasonable increase in temperature up to 38 degrees, weight loss, weakness and frequent ailments.
The type of disease depends on how long ago the patient contracted the infection. Early latent syphilis is a disease in which infection occurred earlier than 24 months ago. The disease proceeds without symptoms, it is detected during routine medical examinations or in the treatment of other diseases.
An early variety is dangerous because the patient is contagious at this time. It endangers sexual partners and family members, since pale treponema is also transmitted by household means.
Sometimes patients remember that for a short period of time they had a rash on the body of an incomprehensible etymology. But the rashes went away on their own after a short period of time. When examining a patient, it is revealed. And at the site of the rash, small scars (or syphilomas) are noticeable. To a greater extent, latent syphilis of an early form affects people under 40 years of age, who more often enter into casual sexual relationships.
Some of the patients with early latent syphilis claim that over the past two years they have had erosive rashes in the mouth and on the genitals.
If the infection is detected when the infection occurred more than two years ago, then the patient is diagnosed with late latent syphilis. During the latent development, pale treponema affects the internal organs and the nervous system. A person suffering from this type of disease is safe for others, since he is no longer contagious.
According to statistics, late infection is found in family people older than 40 years of age. Partners of those infected usually also have syphilis, and the disease also occurs in a latent form.
According to the results of tests in patients, the Wasserman reaction shows a positive result. Also, patients have positive results of RIF and RIBT. These serological reactions are present in low titers, only in 10% of patients - in high titers.
Doctors carefully examine patients with a late form of infection, but there are no signs of a rash on the skin, there are no scars, scars or syphilomas.
Latent undiagnosed syphilis is a form of the disease in which it is impossible to establish the period of infection of the patient. Doctors cannot find out the timing of infection, and the patients themselves do not know when and under what conditions they became infected. This question is important to determine whether a person is contagious to other people, or the dangerous period has already passed.
Sometimes doctors manage to find out the time of infection if the patient is treated with antibiotics from the prolonged penicillin series. In the early stages of the disease, taking antimicrobial drugs causes a sharp increase in temperature, the patient experiences intoxication. If the syphilis of the old form is not specified, then the use of antibiotics does not cause any reactions from the body.
Patients must take a complete blood count. To detect pale treponema, serological studies are carried out: RIBT (immobilization reaction) and RIF (immunofluorescence reaction). It is possible to conduct ELISA (enzymatic immunoassay).
Based on all the results, the doctor makes a diagnosis, finds out whether the patient has an infection, and how long ago the infection occurred.
Patients are always interested in questions about how to treat a latent infection and whether it is possible to fully recover. Therapy is carried out by venereologists. Each patient is prescribed individual treatment depending on the form of the disease, the patient's condition, possible contraindications.
The treatment of latent syphilis does not differ from the treatment regimen for the common form of the disease. Pale treponema is a bacterium, it is sensitive to antibiotics, so therapy is carried out with antibacterial drugs. In parallel, the patient takes immunomodulators, vitamins and drugs that improve the functioning of the intestines and liver (antibiotics kill the entire microflora of the gastrointestinal tract).
The duration of treatment depends on the form of the disease, it can last from two to three months to several years.
The most effective drugs are the penicillin series. They can be short, long (long) or medium action. Penicillins are administered intramuscularly, in this way they are better absorbed and more active. Common drugs include: "Bicillin 1", "Benzathinepenicillin G", "Retarpen".
10% of people are allergic to penicillin antibiotics. In this case, the drugs are replaced with cephalosporin antibiotics. One of the best drugs is Ceftriaxone. In case of allergic reactions to these drugs, patients are prescribed:
Latent syphilis can occur in three forms: early, late and unidentified. Usually it is detected by chance, during a routine examination by doctors or during the treatment of other pathologies. Diagnosis is complicated by the fact that the infection occurs without symptoms.
Patients do not suspect about the disease, they live peacefully. At this time, microorganisms infect the internal organs, and the infected themselves infect other people. Treatment of the disease takes place under the control of a venereologist and depends on the form of the disease.
Latent syphilis is a condition when, in the absence of clinical manifestations of the disease, positive serological reactions are detected in the patient's blood. The treatment of such patients is aimed at serological negativity (obtaining negative serological reactions) and preventing the development of relapses of the disease.
Latent (latent) syphilis occurs in patients who have had active manifestations of the disease in the past, resolved on their own or under the influence of specific treatment.
In some cases, this condition is a special form of asymptomatic syphilis from the moment the patient is infected. Significant assistance in making a diagnosis is provided by a correctly collected anamnesis (history of the disease) and a number of other indirect signs.
Rice. 1. Manifestations of the disease in women in the primary period of the disease are multiple hard chancres (photo on the left) and hard chancre in the form of indurative edema (photo on the right).
According to some authors, the number of patients with latent forms of syphilis has increased 2-5 times in the last decade. Increasingly, it becomes difficult for a doctor to determine the timing of the disease, and the patient's sexual relations are often random. The only method for detecting syphilis in such cases is serological diagnosis.
In our country, the method of active detection of patients with syphilis is used during preventive examinations in clinics and hospitals, antenatal clinics and at blood transfusion points, for which a number of treponemal tests are also used. Thanks to this work, up to 90% of patients with latent forms of the disease are detected during preventive examinations.
Reasons for the increase in the number of patients:
The possibility of asymptomatic syphilis is now recognized.
Serological reactions in latent forms of the disease are the only criterion for confirming the diagnosis.
Rice. 2. Manifestations of the disease in men in the primary period - a single hard chancre (photo on the left) and multiple hard chancres (photo on the right).
If, from the moment of infection, syphilis takes a latent (latent) course (is asymptomatic), but with positive specific serological reactions, they speak of a latent form of the disease. The latent syphilis in most cases comes to light incidentally at statement of specific serological reactions. In some cases, the doctor manages to find out what period of the disease he belongs to:
Such a division of the latent periods of the disease is not always possible, therefore, in venereological practice, it has been established to distinguish between early, late and unspecified latent periods.
Rice. 3. Manifestations of the disease in the secondary period - papular syphilis on the face and palms.
Early latent syphilis includes the period from the moment of infection until the secondary recurrent period (on average up to two years). During this period, patients may experience manifestations of the disease of a high degree of contagiousness. A number of anti-epidemic measures are being taken against them. The main ones are:
Early latent syphilis is recorded mainly in people under the age of 40 years. Most of them have no control over sexual desire. They are prone to numerous casual sexual relationships, which in an epidemic leads to the inevitable development of the disease. The absolute proof of a case of latent syphilis is the establishment of an active form of the disease in a sexual partner.
Carefully collecting an anamnesis, it is necessary to pay attention to rashes of an erosive-ulcerative nature on the genitals, lips, oral cavity, skin, episodes of hair loss on the head, eyebrows and eyelashes, the appearance of age spots on the neck over the past 2 years. It is also necessary to find out whether or not the patient took antibiotics, was treated or not for gonorrhea.
Treatment of early latent syphilis is carried out in accordance with approved instructions and is aimed at the fastest destruction of pathogens in the patient's body. With specific treatment, negative seroreactions occur quite quickly. The extinction and complete negativity of specific serological reactions in latent syphilis are the only criterion for confirming the effectiveness of the treatment.
Timely detection of patients in the period of early latent syphilis and adequate adequate treatment have a positive effect on the prognosis of the disease.
Rice. 4. Manifestations of the disease in the secondary period - syphilitic roseola.
The diagnosis of late latent syphilis is established in patients whose infection duration exceeds 2 years, there are no clinical manifestations of the disease, and positive serological reactions are recorded. Basically, such patients are detected during preventive examinations (up to 99%), including examinations for the identification of a patient with late forms of syphilis in the family (1%).
The disease is detected mainly in people older than 40 years (up to 70%). Of these, about 65% are married.
When interviewing a patient, it is necessary to find out the timing of possible infection and the presence of signs indicating manifestations of infectious syphilis in the past. Often the anamnesis remains uninformative.
Sometimes serological studies have to be repeated after a few months.
In patients with late latent syphilis, whose age ranges from 50 to 60 years, there are a number of comorbidities that cause the appearance of false positive serological reactions.
Treatment of late latent syphilis is carried out in accordance with approved instructions and is aimed at preventing the development of a specific lesion of internal organs and the nervous system. Patients should be consulted by a neurologist and therapist. During the period of specific treatment, negative seroreactions occur extremely slowly. In some cases, after a full-fledged specific treatment, serological reactions remain positive.
The extinction and complete disappearance of specific serological reactions in latent syphilis are the only criterion for confirming the effectiveness of the treatment.
Rice. 5. Manifestations of the disease in the tertiary period - gumma of the face and gummous infiltration of the hand.
In the absence of information about the circumstances and timing of infection and the presence of positive results of serological studies, a diagnosis of latent, unspecified syphilis is established. Such patients are subject to careful clinical and serological examination, often repeated. Setting RIF, RIF-abs and RIBT, ELISA and RPHA are mandatory.
You should be aware that in patients with late and unspecified syphilis, false positive nonspecific serological reactions are often detected. Reagin antibodies produced against the cardiolipin antigen appear in the blood of patients with collagenosis, hepatitis, kidney disease, thyrotoxicosis, oncological diseases and infectious diseases such as leprosy, tuberculosis, brucellosis, malaria, typhus and scarlet fever, during pregnancy and monthly cycles, when taking fatty foods and alcohol, in patients with diabetes mellitus, myocardial infarction and concussion. It is noted that with age the number of false positive reactions increases.
Rice. 6. Hummous infiltration of the buttocks and peripapillary zone in the tertiary period of the disease.
Syphilis can also occur in a latent form.
This variant of the course of the disease is called latent syphilis. Latent syphilis from the moment of infection takes a latent course, is asymptomatic, but blood tests for syphilis are positive.
In venereological practice, it is customary to distinguish between early and late latent syphilis: if the patient became infected with syphilis less than 2 years ago, they speak of early latent syphilis, and if more than 2 years ago, then late.
If it is impossible to determine the type of latent syphilis, the venereologist makes a preliminary diagnosis of latent, unspecified syphilis, and the diagnosis can be clarified during the examination and treatment.
Ordinary syphilis develops when pale treponemas, the causative agents of this disease, enter the human body. During their activity, the patient develops symptoms of syphilis: rash, bumps, gummas, and so on.
At the same time, the patient's immunity does not stand aside: as with any infection, it secretes antibodies (protective proteins), and also sends cells of the immune system to the breeding sites of bacteria.
Thanks to these measures, the majority of pale treponemas die. However, the most tenacious bacteria remain, which change their shape so that the immune system no longer recognizes them.
In the cystic form, pale treponema cannot be active, but it can multiply
This type of "masked" pale treponema is called cystic forms or L-forms. In this form, pale treponema cannot be active, but it can multiply.
As a result, when the immune system "loses its vigilance", secretly bred bacteria enter the bloodstream and harm the body again.
The same thing happens with improper treatment of syphilis. If the antibiotic is chosen incorrectly or in the wrong dose, not all pale treponemas die - the survivors are masked and remain invisible until better times.
False-negative (false-negative) results occur at high antibody concentrations, which inhibit agglutination (the prozone effect), which can be avoided with serial dilutions
serum.
The average rate of false-negative non-treponemal tests (VDRL) in secondary syphilis is about 1%. False-negative results of non-treponemal tests must be distinguished from negative non-treponemal tests at various periods of the course of syphilis, when the body has not yet developed antibodies or when the amount of antibodies is significantly reduced due to a decrease in the amount of lipid antigen.
The frequency of negative non-treponemal tests in different periods of syphilis
Bacteriology
Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum is a spiral-shaped, Gram-negative, highly mobile bacterium. Three other human diseases that are caused by Treponema pallidum include yaws (subsp. pertenue), pinta (subsp. carateum), and bejel (subsp. endemicum).
Unlike the subspecies pallidum, they do not cause neurological disease. Man is the only known natural reservoir for the subspecies pallidum.
It cannot survive without a host for more than a few days. This is because its small genome (1.14 MDa) is unable to code for the metabolic pathways that are required to make most of its macronutrients.
It has a slow doubling time of over 30 hours.
This is the name of the presence of a positive reaction to syphilis according to a serological examination in the actual absence of the disease. Find out the reasons for the body's reaction to the test in this article. It is important to distinguish false positive syphilis from seroresistant and seropositive syphilis.
Is it possible to have a positive reaction in a blood test in the absence of syphilis?
Yes, you can get a false positive if you:
diabetes;
pregnancy;
oncological diseases;
tuberculosis;
alcoholism or drug addiction;
you have recently been vaccinated.
If you receive a positive blood test for syphilis, you should immediately undergo a detailed examination by a venereologist in order to start treatment as soon as possible.
False positive nontreponemal tests
The main reasons for biological false-positive reactions are related to the fact that when conducting non-treponemal tests, antibodies to cardiolipin are determined (the main component of mitochondrial lipids, especially the heart muscle - hence the name), which appears in the body when tissues are destroyed during
some diseases and conditions.
Thus, non-treponemal tests determine the so-called reagin antibodies, which the body has developed not against the causative agent of syphilis - pale treponema, but against the consequences of a syphilitic infection.
However, reaginic antibodies are produced not only to the lipids of destroyed tissues, but also to the membrane lipids of treponema pallidum, but more than 200 antigens have been identified that are similar in composition to the lipid antigen of treponema pallidum.
False positive treponemal
tests
The causes of false positive treponemal tests are unknown. Their percentage is very low.
It is noted that false positive treponemal tests are most common in systemic lupus erythematosus and in Lyme disease (borreliosis). Since antitreponemal antibodies are produced by immunological memory cells for quite a long time, there are hypotheses about a short-term contact of the body with pale treponema, which did not lead to infection with syphilis, but caused the production of antitreponemal
antibodies.
Undoubtedly, the appearance of positive non-treponemal and treponemal tests in non-venereal trepanematoses is not considered as a false positive biological reaction, but does not confirm the presence of syphilis.
Physicians who encounter various manifestations of disease point to biological false prerequisites. The proportion of people who received a false positive test for syphilis actually had lupus.
The same group includes bejel and relapsing fever, leptospirosis, leptospira. However, having received such a conclusion, the doctor cannot immediately ascertain the presence of the disease, if there are also no external signs.
A re-examination is required. The absence of symptoms a second time and a negative result only indicates that the person received an erroneous sentence.
It remains to find an alternative disease, which so far skillfully hides and does not allow itself to be detected visually.
The state of the body at the moment can also affect the receipt of a false positive result. LPR can result from a concussion, regular menstruation, significant trauma or gout.
Technical failures are also rare, but they cause a false positive analysis for syphilis. Lab technician errors or equipment failure will result in an incorrect result.
Non-recognition of serological false-positive reactions for syphilis can have negative prognostic and social consequences. Don't just trust your intuition. The diagnosis requires confirmation or competent refutation.
Decision makers may be due to technical errors and errors in the performance of research, as well as the quality of reagents. Despite the numerous advantages of diagnosticums for RPHA, ELISA and RIF and their modifications used for the diagnosis of syphilis, in some cases, unreliable test results are noted.
This may be due to both the insufficient level of qualification and professional responsibility of the personnel (the so-called non-biological or technical errors), and the characteristics of the tested samples (biological errors).
The causative agents of endemic treponematoses (yaws, pinta, bejel) are treponemas that have genus-specific antigens similar to those of T.pallidum. In this regard, the antibodies formed against them are able to cross-react with the antigen of the causative agent of syphilis.
Biological false positive Wasserman reaction
Nontreponemal:
Treponemal:
In the initial stage, you can use the bacterioscopic method, based on the determination of the pathogen - pale treponema - under a microscope. In the future, serological tests based on the determination of microbial antigens and antibodies produced by the body in biological material are widely used.
Bacteriological research is not carried out, since the causative agent of syphilis grows very poorly on nutrient media under artificial conditions.
All methods for detecting treponema, that is, types of tests for syphilis, are divided into two large groups:
1. Direct, which directly detect the microbe itself:
2. Indirect (serological), based on the detection of antibodies to the microbe, which are produced by the body in response to infection.
Serological tests are divided into two groups
Nontreponemal:
Treponemal:
The methods of these analyzes are quite complex, so we will focus mainly on when they are carried out and how accurate information they give.
Let's say right away that the basis for diagnosing syphilis is serological methods. What is the name of the analysis for syphilis: in each case, the examination may include different methods. Below we will describe them in more detail.
False-positive reactions of treponemal and non-treponemal tests can be observed in infectious diseases, the causative agents of which have antigenic similarity with pale treponema.
These are relapsing fever, leptospirosis, tick-borne borreliosis, tropical treponematosis (yaws, bejel, pint), as well as inflammatory processes caused by saprophytic treponemes of the oral cavity and genitals.
The causative agents of endemic treponematoses (yaws, pinta, bejel) are treponemas that have genus-specific antigens similar to those of T.pallidum. In this regard, the antibodies formed against them are able to cross-react with the antigen of the causative agent of syphilis.
Russia is not a territory endemic for this group of diseases. These infections occur mainly in Africa, Latin America and South Asia, and cases are rare in the practice of medical institutions.
A patient with a positive serological test for syphilis coming from a country with endemic treponematoses should be tested for syphilis and given anti-syphilitic treatment if not previously given.
Latent syphilis is diagnosed in the absence of signs of the disease, and serological reactions in the blood are positive. This form occurs in patients who in the past actively manifested diseases that resolved on their own, or as a result of specific treatment.
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The therapy is carried out according to. Its purpose is the rapid destruction of the pathogen in the patient's body. Negative seroreactions occur quite quickly with specific treatment. The extinction or complete negativity of seroreactions is the only confirmation of the effectiveness of treatment.
Timely diagnosis during early latent syphilis and effective treatment provide a favorable prognosis.
Patients who became infected more than two years ago, who have no symptoms of the disease, and serological tests are positive, are diagnosed with late latent syphilis. Basically, it is detected during a preventive examination.
These patients are less epidemiologically dangerous, since tertiary syphilides are not so contagious. They contain the minimum amount of the pathogen.
The disease is mainly detected in patients older than 40 years. At the same time, approximately 65% of them are married.
When interviewing a patient, they find out the timing of probable infection and the presence of symptoms indicating manifestations of infectious syphilis in the past.
In some cases, serological studies are repeated after several months.
Therapy of this form is carried out according to. The goal of treatment is to prevent the development of a specific lesion of internal organs and the nervous system. Patients need to consult a therapist and a neurologist. Negative seroreactions during the treatment period is extremely slow. In some cases, seroreactions remain positive after treatment.
Latent unspecified syphilis is diagnosed in the absence of information about the timing and circumstances of infection, as well as in the presence of a positive result of serological tests. These patients require careful clinical and serological evaluation. Mandatory are the production of RPHA, RIF, RIF-abs, ELISA, RIBT.
In patients with unspecified and late syphilis, false positive nonspecific serological reactions are often detected.
In the case of timely treatment, the external manifestations of the disease disappear quickly enough. In the most advanced cases, it becomes almost impossible to restore health.
After the illness, it is necessary to take a very responsible approach to the issue of pregnancy planning. It should be borne in mind that it will take more than a year to fully restore the health of future parents. Therefore, it is very important to take precautions to exclude the possibility of infection.
