Syphilis: A Preventable Reality. It’s Eradication, a Current Challenge

Abstract

One of the major health problems in contemporary society is the high rate of sexually transmitted diseases, which is causing great concern on health. When it comes to diseases that have their origins linked to this route of transmission, many people protect themselves primarily from AIDS, due to its greatest social impact. However, syphilis has been gaining prominence of international dimension. Nowadays, congenital syphilis infects more children by vertical transmission of the Treponema pallidum than the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, so feared by the population, being a consequence of the lack of treatment for acquired syphilis during pregnancy. The relevance of this study is to emphasize the need to meet the leading factors that predispose the individual to acquire syphilis and to add different knowledge that can serve as a parameter to its prevention. It deals with a literature review that collected secondary data from books, websites and journals. The general goal of this research is to emphasize the importance of prevention as a primary action on the eradication of syphilis. The specific goals are to perform a syndromic approach to the characterization of syphilis with its stages and manifestations and to emphasize congenital syphilis and the role of the multidisciplinary team in primary care. However, it is noticeable that syphilis is a disease that can be described by the old paradigm of common sense: "prevention is better than cure”. This way, it is possible to win the challenge and to achieve its eradication.