Free
E-newsletter
Subscribe to Housecall
Our weekly general interest
e-newsletter keeps you up to date
on a wide variety of health topics.
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffThe cause of syphilis is a bacterium called Treponema pallidum. The most common route of transmission is through contact with an infected person's sore during sexual activity. The bacteria enter your body through minor cuts or abrasions in your skin or mucous membranes. Syphilis is contagious during its primary and secondary stages, and sometimes in the early latent period.
Less commonly, syphilis may spread through direct unprotected close contact with an active lesion (such as during kissing) or through an infected mother to her baby during pregnancy or childbirth (congenital syphilis).
Syphilis can't be spread by using the same toilet, bathtub, clothing or eating utensils, or from doorknobs, swimming pools or hot tubs.
Even if you've been cured of syphilis, you can become re-infected if you have contact with someone's syphilis sore.
- Hook EW. Syphilis. In: Goldman L, et al. Cecil Medicine. 23rd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/218862952-3/0/1492/1185.html#4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-2805-5..50345-1--cesec16_14680. Accessed Sept. 16, 2010.
- Syphilis fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/STDFact-Syphilis.htm. Accessed Sept. 17, 2010.
- Sexually transmitted diseases surveillance, 2008: Syphilis. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats08/syphilis.htm. Accessed Sept. 16, 2010.
- Birnbaumer DM, et al. Syphilis. In: Marx JA, et al. Rosen's Emergency Medicine. 7th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2009. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/page.do?eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05472-0..00096-7--s0015&isbn=978-0-323-05472-0&sid=1054738467&type=bookPage§ionEid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05472-0..00096-7--s0040&uniqId=218994117-4#4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05472-0..00096-7--s0040. Accessed Sept. 17, 2010.
- Johnson KE. Overview of TORCH infections. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 27, 2010.
- Marra CM. Neurosyphilis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 17, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on