Syphilis is not a big deal - it's curable after all. But you gotta know you have it! Many of us do not recognize the symptoms. So, if you are sexually active, it is smart to make regular syphilis testing part of your routine. Click above to learn more.
Uh, syphillis IS a big deal. It's treatable and we aren't seeing too many cases resistant to the series of antibiotics (first-line, second-line, etc.) currently in use. To say it's no big deal is the height of ignorance. It fosters the idea that it's something that can be attended to whenever one gets around to it. We see that attitude with yearly checkups. As long as the patient has no serious medical condition or needs to be watched carefully, a couple of months one way or another doesn't matter in terms of the yearly checkup. A few months can make a HELLUVA lot of difference in the diagnosis and treatment of syphillis.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't people do a bit of reading — even non physicians can access Medline, for example, or even WebMD (simplistic though it is), before posting these medically inaccurate comments? I'm a psychiatrist, but like most good psychiatrists, I never forgot my training in Internal Medicine or Infectious Disease. I use my training in physical medicine every working day of my life. You don't even want to know what the long-term effects of untreated syphillis can be. It IS a big deal.
—Dr Joey (MD, PhD)
Regular testing doesn't work as well as getting tested TOGETHER BEFORE having sex for A VARIETY of sexually transmitted diseases. Activism won't work critiquing the lack in prevention programs not emphasizing that we can know each others' test results before going ahead and having sex. The biological force is too powerful a force for people to stop for what nature has programmed us and first get tested together. That is it's possible any potential sex partners to do the strategy of let's get tested TOGETHER BEFORE we have sex. But that's not going to happen for most people. Those that do the strategy of getting tested TOGETHER BEFORE having sex reduce ambiguity. Then have any infections treated thus preventing new transmissions. The not b4 we know strategy is a higher standard of sexual health. The strategy is a responsible course of action.
ReplyDeleteIt could be too late for another person with regular testing. Transmitted infections between getting the regular testings have already infected somebody.
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