Pregnant women with syphilis who do not receive appropriate treatment can risk infecting their unborn children (congenital syphilis). Babies can contract syphilis from their mother either through the placenta or when passing through the vagina (birth canal) during birth. Untreated syphilis during pregnancy results in stillbirth or death of the infant in 40 percent of the cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC also reports that women who acquired syphilis and were not treated in the four years preceding pregnancy passed it on to their baby in 70 percent of the cases. Infants of pregnant women adequately treated with the antibiotic penicillin during pregnancy have a minimal risk of developing congenital syphilis. All pregnant women who receive prenatal care in the United States are screened for syphilis.

Treatment of syphilis in pregnant women lowers the risk of the fetus contracting syphilis. Even when the mother is not treated, surviving infants with congenital syphilis can usually be treated successfully after birth.

Infants born with syphilis may have symptoms at birth, but many develop them between two weeks and three months after birth. Signs and symptoms of congenital syphilis may include:

• Skin ulcers
• Rashes
• Fever
• Weakened crying
• Swollen liver or spleen
• Yellowing of the skin, whites of the eyes, nail beds and/or mucous membranes (jaundice)
• Anemia (low red blood cell count)
• Deformity of the bridge of the nose (saddle nose)

Symptoms in infants are usually detected during well-child visits (routine medical examinations typically with a pediatrician). However, when congenital syphilis is left untreated, serious complications during childhood can occur. These can include blindness, deafness, neurological problems and abnormalities of the teeth and nose.