Will the mother's syphilis 12 be passed on to the baby?

Syphilis is a relatively serious sexually transmitted disease. If a mother has syphilis, the possibility of passing it on to the baby is relatively high, because syphilis is mainly transmitted through sexual transmission, mother-to-child transmission, blood transmission, etc. If a pregnant woman has syphilis, the child may be infected through the birth canal during natural delivery. But syphilis is not a genetic disease, it is a contagious disease. Let’s take a look at this aspect.

Syphilis was the most harmful sexually transmitted disease before the discovery of AIDS. Most cases of syphilis were transmitted through unclean sexual intercourse, also known as acquired syphilis; some babies are born with syphilis, which is called congenital syphilis.

This is because when a woman with early syphilis becomes pregnant, the Treponema pallidum in her blood is transmitted to the fetus through the placenta. Therefore, congenital syphilis is infected in the mother's body and is fetal transmission rather than hereditary. Because the mother's genetic material, chromosomes and genes, do not carry information about syphilis, and of course will not be passed on to the next generation. Therefore, syphilis is not hereditary, and we should strictly distinguish between the two different concepts of congenital transmission and inheritance.

Generally speaking, women with stage I or II syphilis, or women who have been infected with syphilis within 4 years, are more likely to suffer from miscarriage, premature birth, and stillbirth due to syphilis infection after pregnancy. Even if they give birth, the fetus will suffer from congenital syphilis. However, infants with congenital syphilis will never infect the next generation with syphilis when they grow up, get married, become pregnant, or give birth. As for adult men and women, when considering marriage, they do not have to worry about syphilis that the previous generation was infected with, because their syphilis will never be passed on to their grandchildren. However, if someone in the family is infected with syphilis, special attention should be paid to proper isolation to prevent indirect infection between adults or between adults and children.

If the patient is unwilling to face up to the symptoms of syphilis and fails to receive timely treatment after discovering them, it will turn into secondary syphilis 9-12 weeks after infection. The main symptom of secondary syphilis is skin and mucous membrane damage with rashes all over the body. About 60% of patients with tertiary syphilis experience gumma symptoms, perforation of organ tissues, severe damage to the nervous and cardiovascular systems, and serious threat to life. Therefore, it is crucial for patients to receive timely treatment after discovering symptoms.

Syphilis can be transmitted to the fetus through the mother's birth canal, so patients must pay attention to taking scientific treatment methods and consider fertility issues only after the bacteria are completely eliminated. If syphilis is detected during the pregnancy examination, please be sure to communicate with the doctor in a timely manner.