Syphilis

infections can be transmitted congenitally or by sexual contact. The disease can advance into a

latent phase in which syphilis is clinically unapparent. Serologic tests that are non-treponemal

specific are currently the primary method for diagnosis of syphilis, but they are not specific.

Zygen Syph® is an in vitro, visually read, highly specific and highly sensitive, qualitative

immunoassay for the detection of antibodies to Treponema pallidum specific antigens in human

serum, plasma or whole blood.

Syphilis on the other hand is a curable infection caused by a bacterium called Treponema

pallidum that is highly infectious. This infection is sexually transmitted, and can also be passed

on from a mother to her fetus during pregnancy. The disease is spread primarily through sexual

transmission or intimate contact with an individual who has an open, wet syphilitic sore. Syphilis

has three distinctive stages in an untreated person. The bacterium known as spirochete is

shaped much like a corkscrew, so it is able to burrow through the skin quite well and get to

almost any place in the body, eventually. The resulting sore marks the place where the syphilis

pathogen has entered the skin and body. Within a few weeks, the infected individual develops

fever, chills, aches, headache, and swollen glands. Sometimes a skin rash develops.