An infectious disease caused by Treponema pallidum. The systemic nature of the disease, in which there are fl orid clinical manifestations interspersed with periods of asymptomatic latency, is also characterized by transmission to offspring and chronic late disease in 25% of those who are untreated.
The name of the disease was drawn from a poem Syphilis sive morbus gallicus, written by Fracastoro of Verona in 1530, in which the mythical swineherd Syphilis refused to make sacrifi ces to Apollo and was smitten as a result.
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