The rate at which syphilis is spreading in Japan has increased dramatically in recent years.
A bacterial infection called syphilis is typically spread through sexual contact.
It is common for the condition to begin as a painless sore in the mouth, genitalia, or rectum.
By touching these lesions on the skin or mucous membranes, syphilis can be transmitted from one person to another.
The syphilis germs can stay dormant in the body for decades after the first infection before coming back to life. Early syphilis can occasionally be healed with a single penicillin treatment.
Syphilis can be fatal if left untreated because it can cause serious damage to the heart, brain, or other organs.
Mothers can also transmit syphilis to their unborn offspring.
The symptoms of syphilis change as the disease progresses through its various phases.
However, there is some overlap between the stages, and the symptoms don't necessarily appear in the order listed.
Syphilis is a disease that can go undiagnosed for a long time.
A chancre is a tiny sore that might be the first indicator of syphilis.
The site of bacterial entry will become inflamed and painful.
People infected with syphilis usually only get one chance, but some people get many.
About three weeks after infection, the chancre will appear.
Because the chancre is often painless and can be well-hidden within the vagina or rectum, many people with syphilis don't realize they have it.
Within three to six weeks, the chancre will have healed on its own.
A rash that starts on the trunk and spreads to the face, arms, legs, and even the palms and soles of the feet and hands can appear a few weeks after the initial chancre has healed.
Unlike other rashes, this one won't make you itch, and it can even come with wart-like lesions in your mouth or genital area.
Hair loss, muscle aches, fever, sore throat, and enlarged lymph nodes are also common symptoms. These symptoms may go away after a few weeks, or they may come and go intermittently for up to a year.
If you don't get your syphilis treated, it will progress to a stage when there are no symptoms at all, called the latent stage.
The dormant period can go on for quite some time.
There is a chance that the disease will never show any symptoms again or that it will advance to the third stage.
About 15% to 30% of people with syphilis who don't get treatment will get tertiary syphilis, which is a more serious form of the disease.
Brain, nerve, eye, heart, blood vessels, liver, bone, and joint damage are all possible in the last stages of the disease.
Untreated infections might cause complications years after they first appear.
Syphilis can spread at any time and create problems with the eye, brain, and nerve system, among other things.
The disease can be passed from an infected mother to her baby through the placenta or while the baby is being born.
Rarely, a rash will appear on the palms and soles of the feet of a newborn who has congenital syphilis, but this is the exception rather than the rule.
Deafness, tooth abnormalities, and nasal collapse (saddle nose) might all appear later on as symptoms.
Babies with syphilis are more likely to be born early, die as fetuses, or die as babies.
The hand of a Caucasian male filled with pores of the syphilis bacteria Syphilis is a sexually transmitted bacterial infection that can infect both partners.
Those infected with the disease may not suffer any symptoms at all, or they may experience mild symptoms that rapidly fade away.
It can be cured, but if you don't treat it, it could hurt your brain or heart in a big way if you don't.
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases says that between January and August 7, there were a total of 7,013 cases in Japan.
This is an increase of 1.7 times the rate seen during the corresponding period last year.
If the current rate of growth keeps up, this year's total could be higher than 10,000 for the first time since 1999, when similar data became available.
As of July 3, the data that had been collected showed that 67% of the carriers were men.
Females between the ages of 20 and 30 made up the vast majority (75%) of those who carried the virus.
An even wider age range of males was affected by infections: those in their twenties (22.4%), thirties (25.4%), forties (25.7%), and fifties (16.4%).
Syphilis treatment experts say that condoms are a good way to lower the risk of getting the disease, but they are not foolproof.
Anyone who has engaged in risky sexual behavior is encouraged to get tested for the disease, regardless of their current healthstatus.