Syphilis bacteria can be detected by examining material from infectious sores under a microscope. A safe, accurate, and inexpensive blood test is also available. The test can detect syphilis antibodies produced by the body shortly after infection occurs. A low level of antibodies will stay in the blood for months or years after the disease has been treated and can be found by later blood tests. Anyone is at risk for syphilis during sexual contact with an infected person or a person whose syphilis status is not known.
Babies born to infected women are also at risk.
The health problems caused by syphilis in adults and newborns are serious themselves. In addition, the genital sores caused by syphilis in adults make it easier to transmit and acquire HIV infection sexually. Areas with the highest rates of syphilis in the United States have some of the fastest growing HIV infection rates in childbearing women. One dose of the antibiotic penicillin will cure a person who has had syphilis for less than a year. More doses are needed to cure someone who has had it for longer.