On Monday June 18th 2018, my fellow Neuroscience classmates and I attended the Musee des Moulages in Paris, France . The museum was filled with casts of various diseases that have dermatological signs, including syphilis. We walked into a big room with two floors; displays filled with various casts spanned from the ground to the ceiling on both floors. We started walking around the room and everyone reacted in disgust at least once or twice, at least I know I did. The casts were all super detailed and showed dermatological effects that I had never even seen before. I couldn’t even recognize some body parts due to the extreme growths that covered it. As I walked around to the back of the first floor, there was a whole back wall solely dedicated to representing the stages of syphilis. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photos in the museum, but it was really interesting to see how much of a dermatological effect that the different stages of syphilis could have. (There was even a cast of syphilis affecting the eyeball!)
The prevalence of syphilis, especially among those infected with HIV, is a public health concern. If left untreated, syphilis can lead to neurosyphilis where both the brain and spinal cord can be negatively affected (Mutagoma et. Al, 2016).
My classmates and I had recently read an article regarding neurosyphilis (NS) and the difficulty in the diagnosis of the disease. Neurosyphilis is considered a late stage of syphilis where the bacteria Treponema pallidumthat causes syphilis invades the central nervous system. Currently, it is very difficult to diagnose NS and the only standard for NS diagnosis is the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test which has low sensitivity (Vanhaecke et. Al., 2016). So, the study examined using nested polymerase chain reaction (nPCR) (which is essentially a mechanism to identify the gene for Treponema pallidum) in cerebrospinal fluid samples to see if they could use that technique to more accurately diagnose people with NS. Although the results were not too significant since they found that the sensitivity of using nPCR was around the same sensitivity as using VDRL, it is still important to further explore different mechanisms to diagnose NS since the current methods do not seem to be sufficient.
Although the Musee des Moulages wasn’t my favorite visit, it was interesting to visually see the effects of syphilis since I knew that if left untreated, along with the severe dermatological effects, NS could result. As a public service announcement, it’s important to get treated early for whatever in order to prevent the further development of whatever you may have. I’m following my own advice as I’m about to head off to my doctor’s appointment! Wish me luck!
Sources:
Mutagoma, M., Remera, E., Sebuhoro, D., Kanters, S., Riedel, D. J., & Nsanzimana, S. (2016). The Prevalence of Syphilis Infection and Its Associated Factors in the General Population of Rwanda: A National Household-Based Survey. Journal of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 2016, 4980417. http://doi.org/10.1155/2016/4980417
Vanhaecke, C., Grange, P., Benhaddou, N., Blanche, P., Salmon, D., Parize, P., Lortholary, O., Caumes, E., Pelloux, I., Epaulard, O., Guinard, J. and Dupin, N. (2016). Clinical and Biological Characteristics of 40 Patients With Neurosyphilis and Evaluation of Treponema pallidumNested Polymerase Chain Reaction in Cerebrospinal Fluid Samples. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 1180-1186.