Treatment
If a pregnant mother is identified as being infected with syphilis, treatment can effectively prevent congenital syphilis from developing in the unborn child, especially if she is treated before the sixteenth week of pregnancy. The child is at greatest risk of contracting syphilis when the mother is in the early stages of infection, but the disease can be passed at any point during pregnancy, even during delivery (if the child had not already contracted it). A woman in the secondary stage of syphilis decreases her child's risk of developing congenital syphilis by 98% if she receives treatment before the last month of pregnancy. An afflicted child can be treated using antibiotics much like an adult; however, any developmental symptoms are likely to be permanent.
Kassowitz’s law is an empirical observation used in context of congenital syphilis stating that the greater the duration between the infection of the mother and pregnancy, the better is the outcome for the infant. Features of a better outcome include less chance of stillbirth and of developing congenital syphilis.
Read more about this topic: Congenital Syphilis
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.””
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
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—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“I am glad you agree with me as to the treatment of the mining riots. We shall crush out the lawbreakers if the courts and juries do not fail.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)