If you saw the wizard-in-a-death-spiral image on this page, you already understand the vibe: a pathogen that doesn’t just “show up,” get labeled, and politely exit. If Lyme disease is the spirochete people argue about at the dinner table, syphilis is the older relative nobody wants to mention—the one with a longer memory, a wider reach, and a talent for going quiet just long enough to be missed.
And “missed” is the operative word.