Why get tested?
The test is easy and you don’t need to wait long for the results. It’s just part of the routine!
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If you’re sexually active and make syphilis testing part of your routine, you and your partners will stay healthy.
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If you make syphilis testing part of your routine, you will be playing a vital role in eradicating syphilis from your neighborhoods, your communities, and from the city of Chicago as a whole. Let’s all stay healthy!
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Syphilis is 100% curable. 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. The standard treatment for 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 will need more medication and should be monitored by a physician.
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