Syphilis is at its highest levels since the 1950s. Here's how experts are trying to fix that.
Syphilis rates are at the highest since the 1950s. Public health officials are trying to bring levels down by making testing and treatments more available.
It was spring 2023, and Dr. Irene Stafford had been called to the ER for what should have been a routine delivery.
But Stafford, a maternal-fetal medicine physician at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, quickly realized something was wrong: She couldn’t find a heartbeat. The unborn baby boy had already died in the womb.
Soon after, the mother’s syphilis test — given to all women before delivery — came back positive. The infection had been silently passed from mother to son.
It’s a death, Stafford said, that could’ve been prevented with early detection and a shot of penicillin.
Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection, was nearly eliminated in the U.S. at the beginning of the 21st century but has made a dramatic comeback. In 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 200,000 syphilis cases — the highest counts since 1950. Congenital syphilis has similarly increased tenfold over the past decade, the CDC says, even though 90% of cases are fully preventable.
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