Congenital syphilis.

The congenital syphilis is an infectious fetopathy which is able to affect the whole organism. In most cases symptoms are not obvious before week four th to twelve of life. The infection of the mother is the precondition for t he child's disease. The placental transfer takes place after the fifth to s ixth month of gestation. We report about an eight week old baby with congen ital syphilis. The positive maternal labatory findings in the 4th month of pregnancy have been interpreted as a completely cured earlier infection cau sing a sere scar. The diagnosis became evident by serological tests detecti ng reactivation of maternal infection in late pregnancy and the clinical si gns of acute infection of the child. Conclusion: There is a high risk of re activation of maternal syphilis in the third trimenon even if the mother do es not show any symptoms. In this case further serological tests in the pre natal care and careful examination of the newborn must be initiated.