T. Pallidum Bacterium that Leads to Syphilis (Essay Sample)

T. pallidum Bacterium That Leads to Syphilis
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INTRODUCTION
Treponema pallidum (T. pallidum) is the syphilis causing bacterium which is mainly transmitted sexually. It could be treated during its early stages using antibiotics, or otherwise cause disability, neurological conditions, and fatalities. For a long time, the bacterium in vitro failed to culture on tissue culture. As such, the only means of culturing in the laboratory was on animals. This made it very problematic to achieve correlation of clinical signs with the existence or nonexistence of spirochetes replication or performance of simple in vitro antimicrobial vulnerability tests (Edmondson & Norris, 2018). Progress has recently been made in the elucidation of the bacterium’s pathogenicity facets (Radolf & Deka, 2016). T. pallidum is spread during birth, close contact with an active laceration such as during kissing, blood transfusion, or sexual contact in a majority of the cases. Infected people are most infectious during the early stages when the chancre or the mucous spot is existent. In addition, during the first four years of acquisition, an immunocompetent yet untreated individual is not infectious although re-infecting others occurs occasionally. The disease is believed to affect people since the ‘New World’ was discovered in 1492 and was among the most common infections before antibiotics were revealed. Cases reduced from drastically from mid- 1950s until after 2000 when annual increases continue to be reported in the United States (Radolf & Deka, 2016). This paper is a discussion of the history in chronological order and the most recent research on the T. pallidum which is the syphilis causing bacterium.
History
In the 15th century, syphilis underwent recognition by the Europeans as a new disease using two theories which included contraction by Christopher Columbus and his fleet of ships travelled to the ‘New World’, or the existence of the disease in Europe which just remained undiagnosed over the years. In 1905, Franz Schulze claimed to have realized syphilis’ etiological agent though he was of the speculation that the agent was responsible for other diseases (Townsend, 2016). To clear these doubts, Schauddin Fritz investigated infected papula through observations of the appearance and behavior of the T. Pallidum which he described as light and thin, and named it Spirocheta pallida. The presentation of this research to the Berlin Medical Society in the same year was constantly challenged by the belief that Cytorrhyctes luis was the agent of concern. However, after reinvestigations were conducted, the results were proven correct and Schauddin and his crew renamed it to Treponema pallidum.
In 1932, the U.S Public Health Service conducted an experiment in Alabama where out of 600 patients tested, 399 had syphilis. The “Tuskegee study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” study was conducted in the rural areas of Tuskegee. The patients hailed from Macon and the U.S interest was studying the syphilis history. The research was conducted under the disguise that patients were undergoing treatment for ‘bad blood’ which described various health associated concerns such as anemia and fatigue. The subjects were promised free health care from the government as a reward for participating. Although the research was set to be conducted for 6 months, it persisted for four decades (Townsend, 2016). The treatments promised for bad blood were not delivered.
In 1947, penicillin was discovered as an operative treatment during the early stages but no action was taken to offer it to the patients. The patients were not told about their fatality of their conditions or the real intentions of the study conducted earlier. The study was halted in 1972 when it was regarded as unethical and inhuman, and a lawsuit filed for the survivors and the victim’s families in 1973. By 1975, a lifetime cover had been provided to the victims and their loved ones. The last patient who had participated in the 1932 experiments died in 2004 (Townsend, 2016).
Current Research
Syphilis has posed a major challenge to researchers over the years. The public health department has been considerably frustrated by the unharnessed rises in the number of syphilis cases, despite the nation’s focused efforts of disease elimination in the United States (Lukehart, 2018). The number of instances reported on the syphilis infection at both primary and secondary stages has risen 2.5 times in one decade (Lukehart, 2018). This has evidently defied the control methods of the disease through traditional methods of testing, treating, and contact traces. Clinicians have pointed out that the numerous ways in which Treponema pallidum manifests itself makes the diagnosis problematical. Experts also state that managing patients has also proven difficult as a result of the incapacities of regular therapies and benzathine penicillin to facilitate the elimination of the organisms arrayed in the individual’s nervous system (Edmondson & Norris, 2018).
However, a current 2018 report from Edmondson and Norris has revealed a long-lasting uninterrupted spread of T. Pallidum in vitro for the first time (Lukehart, 2018). This is a milestone for researchers who have largely invested time and resources into decades of work since the T. Pallidum was discovered in the 20th century. This has opened a tremendous number of opportunities to develop genetic tools in the study of pathogenesis, and antigen surface exposure. The likelihood of quicker sequestrations of fresh strains is a chance of expansion of knowledge on the disease causing organism (Radolf & Deka, 2016).
A 2017 study was conducted on women for the determination of various factors associated with the prevalence of syphilis in public hospitals. The study involved 239 cases and 322 controls on women in 7 different maternity centers in Brazil between 2013-2014. Cases and controls were selected on the basis of outcomes of the syphilis serology through the Enzyme Linked