Syphilis is a notifiable disease in many places, including Canada, the countries in the European Union, and the United States. This means that if a healthcare provider (like a doctor or a nurse) knows that a patient has syphilis, the provider has to tell public health authorities that the patient is infected. Public health workers then talk to all of the patient's sexual partners. They tell them someone might have given them syphilis, without telling them who that person is. Doctors might also try to get patients with syphilis to tell their sexual partners to get treatment.