THE MAIN SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES: GONORRHOEA AND SYPHILIS

Gonorrhoea

One in a hundred of the population are affected by this disease; 80% of those affected are men under the age of 25. The pathogenic agent is a bacterium commonly known as gonococcus. Antibiotics will cure the illness provided it is treated in its early stages. If not, it rapidly spreads throughout the sex organs, including the prostate gland and testicles, and can cause sterility. In women (with whom the symptoms are less clear-cut than with men) the disease can end by attacking the uterus and Fallopian tubes. It can even be fatal if complicated by peritonitis.

In men and women alike, the first signs are burning during urination and painful discharges from vagina or urethra.

Syphilis

This is the most dreaded of the venereal diseases, and its signs are visible in the early incubation stages. It affects men almost exclusively, homosexuals especially. Its cause is a bacterium that can be propagated not only by the sex organs but also by a wound or sore on any part of the body.

If not treated in time, syphilis reaches several of the vital organs, and in the long term causes madness, paralysis and blindness.

It is vitally important to consult a doctor as soon as any sign, even in mild form, suggests the disease may be present. Otherwise the process is irreversible and ends in death.

Unlike gonorrhoea, syphilis does not seem to have developed any resistance to antibiotics.

Untreated syphilis goes through four stages:

1) 10 to 70 days after contamination, a little crater-like ulcer appears on the glans or foreskin, or on the vulva or clitoris in women. This painless ulcer may also appear near a wound if this was the source of infection, or on the anus or breast. It disappears after a month or two. In the meantime the glands swell in the region of the ulcer.

It is at this stage that the disease is most susceptible to antibiotic treatment.

About two months after contamination, spots appear on the skin. Hair falls out in tufts. The glands are swollen. The patient’s voice becomes hoarse and he suffers headaches and attacks of fever. It is at this stage that the disease is most contagious.

About a year after the second stage, all symptoms have disappeared. But the entire body is gradually becoming contaminated: the skin, bones, heart, brain and spinal cord.

Several years later, sometimes even thirty years later, the disease ends in blindness, paralysis and death.

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