Young man's memory loss was caused by syphilis infection! Doctor: Be careful about these behaviors!

Mr. Li, who is in his 30s, began to experience memory loss three months ago without any obvious cause. Sometimes he could not even remember what happened that morning. He also had symptoms such as decreased speech fluency and slow reaction. His family rushed him to the Second Department of Neurology of Hunan Provincial People's Hospital for treatment.

After detailed inquiries, Deputy Chief Physician Hu Ying learned that the patient had lost about 15 kilograms of weight for no reason between November and December 2023, but he did not take it seriously at the time. As the symptoms worsened, in mid-December 2024, Mr. Li went to the hospital for treatment at the strong request of his family. The relevant test results showed that the syphilis antibody was positive, but the patient still did not pay attention to it and did not receive specific treatment.

Recently, the patient felt that his speech fluency had decreased more than before, and he had mild memory loss. A ulcer with a diameter of about 1 cm appeared on the back of his right hand, which did not heal for a long time, so he had to go to the hospital again. After completing relevant examinations, the patient was diagnosed with neurosyphilis. After several days of treatment to eliminate syphilis and improve cognitive function, the patient's symptoms improved and he was discharged from the hospital recently.

Hu Ying, deputy chief physician of the second ward of neurology , said that syphilis is a chronic, systemic sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema pallidum (Treponema pallidum). Neurosyphilis is caused by Treponema pallidum invading the human central nervous system, which can cause symptoms such as dementia, amnesia, blindness, deafness, and even paralysis and brain death.

In the early stage of infection, neurosyphilis mainly invades the meningeal nerves and meningeal blood vessels, which may cause hemiplegia, aphasia, epileptic seizures, etc. Further invasion of the brain parenchyma may cause clinical manifestations such as paralytic dementia, tabes dorsalis, and gumma. Therefore, the diagnosis of neurosyphilis requires a comprehensive consideration of the patient's medical history, physical signs, and related tests. If the patient has neurological manifestations such as memory loss, auditory hallucinations, blurred vision, etc. in the short term, and the disease progresses rapidly, special attention should be paid.

Syphilis is mainly transmitted through sexual contact, mother-to-child transmission, and blood transmission. Therefore, for the prevention of syphilis, Deputy Chief Physician Hu Ying reminds us to pay attention to the following aspects:

1. Health education: Carry out publicity and education on syphilis prevention and treatment knowledge through various channels to improve the public's understanding of syphilis, enhance self-protection awareness, and advocate healthy sexual behavior and lifestyle.

2. Safe sex: Promote the use of condoms, reduce the number of sexual partners, and avoid having sex with people with syphilis to reduce the risk of syphilis transmission.

3. Blood safety: Strengthen the testing and management of blood and blood products to ensure blood safety and prevent syphilis infection due to blood transfusion or use of blood products.

4. Prevention of mother-to-child transmission: Screen pregnant women for syphilis, detect and treat syphilis infection in a timely manner to prevent the syphilis spirochete from being transmitted to the fetus through the placenta. Newborns born to pregnant women infected with syphilis should receive preventive treatment and follow-up.

Syphilis is one of the sexually transmitted diseases that my country currently focuses on preventing and treating. Syphilis patients should notify all their sexual partners and conduct appropriate examinations and treatment. If it can be detected early and treated in a standardized manner, and necessary follow-up is performed after treatment, it can generally be cured. However, if treatment is delayed, it may lead to serious complications and cause great harm to physical health.

Hunan Medical Chat Special Author: Gao Hui, Department of Neurology, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital

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(Edited by Wx)