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"Walking together in kindness" artwork produced for Gold Coast Health by Riki Salam, We are 27 Creative.Syphilis is a bacterial sexually transmissible infection (STI) which may be passed on through skin-to-skin contact during oral, vaginal or anal sex with a person who has syphilis.
Not everyone with syphilis has obvious signs of infection, so you may not know you have it unless you have a blood test.
Symptoms may include:
Syphilis can be diagnosed by a blood test or swab.
Syphilis is passed on by having penile, anal, vaginal or oral sex with someone who has the infection. You may not see any visible symptoms but may still become infected. Symptoms including sores and rashes are highly infectious. Syphilis can also be transmitted from a pregnant person to their baby.
The recommended treatment for syphilis is injections of penicillin. There is an alternative for those people with severe penicillin allergy. Do not have any sexual contact for 7 days after you start treatment as you may be at risk of passing syphilis to your sexual partners or becoming re-infected.
This period may be longer if you are treated with a penicillin alternative.
All sexual partners within the last 3, 6 or 12 months should be tested, depending on how long you have had syphilis. Your doctor/nurse will advise how long this period will be. Sexual partners of those with primary or secondary infection should be treated. To prevent reinfection, you should not have any sexual contact with past sexual partners until they have been tested and/or treated.
