[Question #13762] Contact with Syphillis Sore
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24 days ago
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To start off, this all happened very recently. I touched a women's breast and noticed she had sore. It looked rough and looked to be scabbing over. Now that I'm googling images it looked very similar to a chancre. I remember I then used that hand accidentally and touched my penis. She also touched me a few times on various areas of my body. She definitely touched my penis. I got worried about her sore after seeing it and we stopped right away. We didn't do anything else. Few days and she told me she has syphilis. I rush to the ER, but they told me there's nothing they can do right now. I would test negative because it's too soon after exposure. They told me to test again after a week. They also said they don't take preventive measures. They told me that what I described to them is extremely low risk and they would be surprised if I caught anything. I was told to test myself in a week.
Is what they said correct? This is an extremely low risk event?
I am worried that I will infect my family by accident. What are the chances of that happening? Should I do anything to help prevent this? Can I infect someone before developing a chancre?
Should I test myself in a week? If its negative, should I test again after another 2 weeks to confirm?
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24 days ago
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Sorry, I forgot to mention, when I touched her breast my hand definitely touched her sore.
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Edward W. Hook M.D.
24 days ago
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Welcome to the Forum. Thanks for your questions. Even if the sore on this woman’s breast was syphilis, your risk for infection is low. Syphilis is transmitted from person to person through DIRECT CONTACT with an infectious lesion, and even then most contacts do not transmit infection. Transfer of STIs through transfer of infection through hand to genital transfer of infectious material is virtually unheard of. That said, if you don’t have a lesion at this time and we’re going to develop one, infected can be prevented with administration of a single dose of ceftriaxone or doxycycline taken twice daily for a week.
Your family is not at risk without direct contact with a lesion.
Syphilis blood testing provides accurate results 3-4 days after appearance of a lesion or, if no lesion is present, 6 weeks following the contact of concern.
I hope this information is helpful. EWH
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