If she has an advanced case.
I seriously doubt that she has an advanced case of syphilis. Syphilis is a bacteria that is treatable with antibiotics. And no one would purposely chose to forgo treatment for such a serious infection unless they didn't know that they had it. So how would her ex-roommate know, and she didn't know she had syphilis? It doesn't add up. However, she's been in the business so long, she probably has something going on. I guess it's possible that she has a bug that is resistant to antibiotics. But that's not likely. Wear your hat's boys!
Baltoman