Why get tested?

The test is easy and you don’t need to wait long for the results.

 

• If you’re sexually active and either you or your partner have had sex with someone else since your last syphilis test, then you are at risk for syphilis. A test will help you and your partner stay healthy.
• By getting a syphilis test, you will be playing a vital role in eradicating syphilis from your neighborhoods, your communities, and from Georgia as a whole. Let’s all stay healthy!
• If you have the disease, you can get it easily treated right away.

 

 

The test

As syphilis is a systemic disease (which means it affects the entire body), the most common test used for diagnosis is a serology or blood test.  This detects antibodies to the syphilis bacteria.  If you have a chancre, some clinics can look at fluid from the chancre to actually see the bacteria.

 

Even if your test results are negative, if you KNOW you have had sex with someone with syphilis, YOU SHOULD GET TREATED.  If you do not receive treatment with appropriate antibiotics, you could be incubating syphilis, develop the disease and test positive for syphilis later on, and meanwhile pass syphilis on to others.

 

Treatment

 

Syphilis is curable; however, the damage syphilis causes to some organs in long term infection may cause life-long health conditions…get tested and get treated early before damage is done. The standard treatment for early syphilis is one dose of Benzathine Penicillin G, sometimes called Bicillin.  If you are allergic to penicillin, you will be given a different medication.  If you are also HIV+ or otherwise immune compromised or have progressed to late syphilis, you may need more medication and should be monitored by a physician or county health department staff.

 

If you’re at risk, get tested.