ilis. The disease then enters a latent stage in which no outward signs or symptoms occur, however, the bacteria are activeinside your body, multiplying and attacking internal organs. The latent stage can last from 20 to 30 years. When secondstage symptoms completely disappear, the disease is no longer infectious. At this point, the "rule of thirds" comes intoplay. Among the total number of latent syphilis cases, one-third will go away on their own, one-third will stabilize, andone-third of the cases will evolve to the next and last stage. When the final stage, tertiary syphilis, does occur, it couldbe fatal. It may produce hard nodules, called gummas, in the tissues under the skin, the mucous membranes, and theinternal organs. The bones are also affected, as well as the liver, kidney, and other visceral organs. Infection of the heartand major blood vessels accounts for most of the syphilis related deaths. A special kind of syphilis, which occurs in nearly 15 percent of the tertiary cases, is called neurosyphilis. It causes lackof muscular coordination, loss of urinary control, and degeneration of the reflexes. It also may cause pregnancyproblems, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or to the birth of a child with congenital syphilis. Infected children often havetypical signs, such as high forehead, saddlenose, and peg-shaped teeth. Syphilis can be diagnosed and treated with relative ease. Because of this, the past twenty-five years or so have seen amarked decline in the number of tertiary stage cases of syphilis and of deaths due to the disease. Syphilis is mostlytreated by an injection of penicillin, or by a two-week regimen of tetracycline. Two follow-up blood tests two weeksapart from the initial test and two weeks apart from each other are needed to ensure the treatment was effective. Thefirst three stages of syphilis are completely curable, and even in the last stage syphilis can be stopped. With the presentmedical technology to d...
