I'm confused by the advertising and info on Syphilis... couple questions.
If you have sex without kissing or mouth-face in contact with a person who has syphilis, and you catch syphilis, can you:
- give another person syphilis with a kiss to the mouth?
- Give another person syphilis with a kiss to the cheek?
- can another person get it from you if the kiss you on the cheek?.
the web and adds indicate you can get it on the"face" and transmit it with a kiss
Hi PPUMHU
It really depends on what stage of syphilis you have. There are 4 different stages of syphilis; primary, secondary, latent and tertiary.
To catch syphilis you need to come in contact with a moist syphilis sore.
Primary: Is the first stage. Some people will develop a sore in 9-90 days. The sore is moist and really infections. Usually stays around for 1 month. It is usually painless so can go unnoticed if it is in the mouth, vagina or rectum. The sore would be on the body part, where syphilis entered your body. You could only pass syphilis on during this stage if your sore rubs against their body.
Secondary: Starts around 6 weeks after getting syphilis. Many people do not get symptoms but people can get body rashes and mucous patches (sores) in the mouth, vagina, and rectum. These sores are infectious and the ones in the mouth could pass with DFK. This stage usually lasts around 1 month, but the symptoms of secondary syphilis can sometimes reoccur in the future.
When you write “the advertising and info on Syphilis” if your meaning the information from the Alberta site,
http://www.plentyofsyph.com/
A few of us at the clinic have looked at this website and it seems like they are using scare tactics and a fair bit of stigma to get their message across. In this site they have a few people with syphilis sores on their face. I have never seen syphilis sores like this on the face, the sores we have seen are usually inside the mouth. Many of these sores appear to be large cold sores, with a secondary skin infection.
I have seen the round sores without all the redness on people’s genitals but I guess they could not show these photo’s on the website.
On our risk chart at
http://healthnurse.wordpress.com/faq-about-sexual-health/sti-risks-chart/ we have listed syphilis transmission with deep french kissing (DFK) as high risk, but this means deep kissing (using tongues etc…) for a period of time. A peck on the cheek or lips would not really pose a risk.
If someone had a facial skin condition like shown on
http://www.plentyofsyph.com/ I would recommend not kissing it.
Important points:
(1) Most people we see with syphilis do not get any symptoms. This is why we recommend regular STI checkups with a syphilis test when you feel fine.
(2) Syphilis can pass with oral sex.
(3) Syphilis is treatable with antibiotics.
More information on syphilis.
http://www.stiresource.com/disease/index.php?page=edit&id=4&action=viewfull
http://www.bccdc.ca/dis-cond/a-z/_s/Syphilis/default.htm
Let me know if there is any confusion.
HN
www.healthnurse.wordpress.com
www.bccdc.ca
www.stiresource.com
