These graphic images of a syphilis patient show the gruesome reality of what unprotected sex can lead to.
Syphilis is a highly contagious disease spread primarily by sexual activity. These graphic images of syphilis show the gruesome reality of what unprotected sex can lead to.
A 38-year-old man in the photos needed hospital treatment after developing painful, crusted skin ulcers all over his body after contracting the STI.
What started off as painless lumps developed into pus-oozing sores in two weeks, although it is likely he caught the infection months or even years earlier, doctors say.
The man was treated at the No 1 Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, China. The doctors who treated him wrote in The Lancet: 'The man had a 1 month history of multiple painful skin ulcers on his face, trunk, and extremities.
The eruptions had started [small]... and progressed to pustules and painful ulcers within 2 weeks.'
As a result, the patient was first diagnosed with pyoderma gangrenosum, a rare skin condition that causes painful ulcers. But his symptoms worsened and after a week, he developed a fever, while being treated in hospital.
Further tests confirmed he was suffering from malignant syphilis, a rare strain of the STI. The man reportedly had had sex with four women during the past year but denied ever having sex with men.
Every year, 498 million people aged 15 to 49 are infected each year with chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, or trichomoniasis, according to the World Health Organisation.
The pictures have been released by Chinese medics reporting in The Lancet medical journal to show the serious effects some strains of syphilis can have on the human body.
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