How does syphilis pass between people?
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease. It is not hereditary, that is it cannot be passed down from one generation to another. It has to be passed either through sexual contact (penis, vagina, anal, oral), or from an infected breast to a baby, from an infected baby to a wet nurse, or from an infected mother to her child at birth. It is therefore called a congenital, not a hereditary, disease.
