Case Study 2

Boy with fever and rash

Wrong answer!

	Question 1 of 6 The diagnosis is? B. Syphilis		Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by Treponema pallidum, a spiral-shaped bacterium. Syphilis can progress through four stages with dramatically different clinical presentations.
	Primary syphilis is characterized by a skin lesion at the initial site of entry of the infectious agent and usually occurs 2 - 10 weeks after infection. The patient's rash is on his back, this is a very unlikely port of entry for syphilis. Also the skin lesion in primary syphilis, referred to as chancre, looks quite different from the rash seen in your patient.	Used with permission of © Dr. Norm Levine