What are the stages of syphilis?
Primary Stage: Symptoms usually show up 10-90 days after a person is exposed to syphilis. Possible early symptoms include a painless sore called a chancre (shank-er) and swollen glands near the sore. These sores go away without treatment, leaving you symptom-free but still infected with the disease. The chancre also makes transmission of HIV much easier. Secondary Stage: Within 4-12 weeks after infection, you will usually notice a non-itchy rash on the body and the hands and soles of the feet. Other symptoms may include patchy hair loss, fever and grey or white spots in moist areas of the body. Again, these symptoms may go away if left untreated, but infection is still present. Latent Stage: There are usually no symptoms in the latent stage of the disease. The infection can only be detected through a blood test. If you go untreated during this stage, you can still be cured of infection. However, some people with latent syphilis do progress to the late stage of the disease. Tertiary (La
