1. How is syphilis contracted? Syphilis is mainly transmitted through direct sexual contact and through the placenta during pregnancy. The vast majority of people are infected with syphilis through sexual intercourse with a person who has syphilis. Untreated syphilis patients, especially in the first year of the disease, have a large number of syphilis spirochetes on the skin and mucous membrane surfaces and can easily infect healthy contacts through injuries to the skin and mucous membranes of sexual contacts (even if they are very minor and invisible to the naked eye). 2. Can syphilis be transmitted only through sexual intercourse? Although more than 90% of acquired syphilis is transmitted through sexual intercourse, there are still a few people who can be infected with syphilis through non-sexual means, such as through kissing, blood transfusion (early syphilis patients as blood donors), breastfeeding, etc. can also be directly transmitted. Very few people may be infected indirectly through towels, razors, cigarettes, utensils, toys, clothing, medical devices, etc. that are contaminated with syphilis spirochetes. Generally speaking, the chance of transmission through daily contact is very small. 3.How does syphilis spread in families or dormitories? If one person in the family has syphilis, there is a great chance that his or her spouse or sexual partner will have syphilis at the same time, and blood should be drawn for syphilis antibodies as soon as possible, and since syphilis infection has an incubation period of several weeks, it is best to give anti-syphilis treatment as soon as possible even if the test results are negative. However, the chance of transmission between non-couples or sexual partners is almost zero, even if they are in close contact in life, so blood tests can be taken to exclude syphilis without the need to routinely give anti-syphilis treatment, and there is no need to be overly concerned about being infected and repeatedly tested. Likewise, people living in the same dormitory are not easily infected with syphilis through living contact. 4. Is all syphilis contagious? The infectiousness of syphilis decreases with the duration of the disease. Patients with stage I and II syphilis are infectious, and there are a large number of syphilis spirochetes in their skin and mucous membrane damage; patients with early latent syphilis are also infectious. The infectiousness of syphilis decreases when the disease lasts for more than 2 years, and even if you have sexual contact with a woman with untreated syphilis who has had the disease for more than 2 years, you will generally not be infected. The longer the course of the disease, the less contagious, more than 8 years of the disease, the contagious has been very small. 5.Can syphilis be transmitted to children? The majority of syphilis is contracted through impure sexual intercourse, also known as acquired syphilis, and couples who suffer from syphilis after having children are not likely to pass it on to their children. However, when a woman with early syphilis becomes pregnant, the syphilis spirochetes in the blood can be transmitted to the fetus via the placenta, causing the baby to suffer from syphilis from the moment it is born into the world, called congenital syphilis. Congenital syphilis is transmitted in the mother’s body and is fetal, not genetic. Because the mother’s genetic material, chromosomes and genes, do not carry information about syphilis and certainly do not pass it on to the next generation, syphilis is not inherited and can be passed on fetus.