Infants born with syphilis skyrocket
The rise in sexually transmitted infections in the United States has taken a particularly tragic turn: More than 3,700 cases of congenital syphilis were reported in 2022, roughly 11 times the number recorded a decade ago, according to data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Syphilis during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage and stillbirth, and infants who survive may become blind or deaf, or have severe developmental delays. In 2022, the disease caused 231 stillbirths and 51 infant deaths.
Nearly 90% of the new cases could have been prevented with timely testing and treatment, according to the agency.
Nearly 38% of the 3,700 babies were born to women who received no prenatal care. Of the women who had at least one prenatal appointment, 30% were never tested for syphilis or were tested too late. And among those who tested positive for syphilis, 88% received inadequate, undocumented or no treatment.
Public health departments used to have teams of disease-intervention specialists and nurses who made sure that pregnant women were tested and treated — even if that meant giving them shots in their homes — and traced all of their contacts, said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, dean of the University of Mississippi’s John D. Bower School of Population Health.
But those departments have been gutted over the years.
Calling the rise in congenital syphilis “a shameful crisis” accelerated by funding cutbacks and bureaucratic obstacles, the National Coalition of STD Directors on Tuesday demanded $1 billion in federal funding and a White House syphilis response coordinator to stem the tide.
Syphilis was nearly eliminated in the United States about 20 years ago but rose by 74%, to 177,000 cases, between 2017 and 2021. Other STIs are also on the rise: In 2021, there were 1.6 million cases of chlamydia and more than 700,000 cases of gonorrhea.
The numbers were rising even before the pandemic, but in the past few years, a drop in routine preventive care, a shift to telehealth for prenatal care and reduced clinic hours may have exacerbated the situation.
In June, Pfizer warned the Food and Drug Administration that the syphilis antibiotic Bicillin was in short supply, in part because of the sharp rise in demand for syphilis treatment.