United States: Public health officials are urgently and obviously encouraging syphilis testing and treatment because this preventable intimately transmitted infection which is making a concerning return. They are particularly tensed about congenital syphilis, which can be actually passed from a pregnant person to their baby.
As reported by, the City, this condition can lead to serious complications such as miscarriage, stillbirth, and premature birth. Babies who are already born with congenital syphilis may face severe health issues, including deformed bones, severe anemia, and problems with their brain and nerves. To prevent these dangers, it is crucial for everyone to get tested and treated.
Cases of congenital syphilis have steadily risen across the country from 334 in 2012 and 3,761 in 2022 as per CDC data. The CDC noted 231 still births and 51 infant mortalities in 2022.
Those are more worrying the experts explained, because syphilis in newborns is entirely avoidable, and easily cured with a type of penicillin. But instances can occur where pregnant individuals are never tested for the syphilis at appropriate times, or individuals never seen for prenatal care.
Coe and others found that CDC’s STI prevention programs have remained only slightly above the inflation rate for the past twenty years, and in the most recent year, some local health departments in the United States have had their STI prevention budgets slashed.
All the clinicians are worried about rises in congenital syphilis and the disease in general across the United States, said Dr. Rodney Wright from Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. They both said that this is not only a problem in New York. It’s a problem that is prevalent all over the rest of the nation.”
Congenital syphilis incidences are worst in some of the South western and the North eastern states and the mid-western states. Some of the worst affected minorities have been the native populations of America. Still, even New York, which has some of the lowest rates of congenital syphilis in the nation, has seen cases increase.
New York, in turn, is only slightly above the national average of incidence of primary and secondary syphilis – the most contagious forms that can prov que congenital cases.
New data for 2023 suggest approximately 70 congenital syphilis cases in New York state, 204% more than in the previous 10 years, and all achieve- ments were met in 2020, Kerwin, director of the AIDS Institute at the New York State Department of Health, said at the meeting of the New York State.
AIDS Advisory Council in September.
This is the first time in this century that New York State has seen a number rise to this level,” Kerwin said of the cases.
This year, New York is on the track to see at least the same number of congenital syphilis cases as last year said Rachel Malloy, director of the Office of Sexual Health and Epidemiology at the AIDS Institute.
“Compared to the rest of the country, New York state rates are actually lower, which speaks to the magnitude of the issue, because the rates in New York state are high, “Malloy said.
Surge in the Primary and Secondary Syphilis.
When the CDC began tracking cases in the 1940s, the agency regularly recorded hundreds of thousands of the total cases each year nationwide!
Leave a Reply