Descriptive Cohort of Acquired Syphlis by Non Sexual Contact

Syphilis is classically described as a sexually transmitted disease. As this source of contagious has been described long ago -mainly though by observation- when children presents with acquired syphilis, child abuse is always considered and must be ruled out by specialists in a careful evaluation.

However, muco-cutaneous lesions can be a contagious source for congenital syphilis; therefore the possibility of non-sexual transmission through intimate contact with infected people through humid lesions (such as in kisses, breastfeeding, food-handling) or contaminated fomites (towels, bed sheets, underwear, cups, pacifiers, cutlery) could be considered. Experts worldwide have observed this non-sexual transmission, as described in many reports in literature.

The investigators will study retrospectively patients from a cohort with non-sexual transmission. The diagnosis criteria used for acquired syphilis were as follows: age under 18 years with treponemic and nontreponemic positive tests, secondary-syphilis suspicious lesions and negative maternal syphilis serology. Nonsexual contagious was defined as contacts without physical and psychosocial indicators of sexual abuse according to current guides. In this cohort, in every case a psychosocial evaluation was completed with a written report in order to evaluate sexual contact probability.

The teamo will describe these patients clinical and laboratory findings, family and close acquaintances serologies and probable source of contagious.