Appendix 2. Congenital syphilis
Published 26 August 2026
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2026
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Congenital syphilis occurs when syphilis infection occurs during pregnancy. It can lead to miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death, or serious long-term health problems for the infant.
Clinicians who are treating patients who believe they could be pregnant should not utilise the expedited protocol as described in this document and should instead follow the BASHH clinical guidelines for syphilis in pregnancy.
Congenital syphilis is a notifiable disease. To ensure that appropriate public health action can be taken when potential congenital syphilis cases are identified, the clinician or healthcare worker should:
- notify their local health protection team, and
- notify their Infectious diseases in pregnancy screening programme: ISOSS, and
- refer the patient to the local level 3 sexual health clinic
The syphilis infant birth plan should also be completed by the specialist teams caring for all birth parents with a positive syphilis result.