HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — The CDC reports that U.S. Syphilis cases in newborns are continuing rise. Data shows that over the decade there has been a 10 times increase. Almost 9 in 10 cases of newborn syphilis in 2022 might have been prevented with timely testing and treatment during pregnancy.
Syphilis spreads by sexual intercourse, and UAB Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases Dr. Jodie Dionne said one key thing doctors want everyone to know is this is one of those infections that most people do not know they have. "We have known about syphilis for a very long time. It's a very old infectious disease caused by a bacteria."
It is also very treatable. "It's curable if you catch it early and you treat it early with a penicillin antibiotic. If you don't recognize that a woman who is pregnant is infected, it very easily passes through the placenta and then the outcomes for the baby can be really, really severe. short term, long term, there is issues with how the baby grows, bone growth, even vision changes, and things that we always want to try to avoid."
ADPH District Medical Officer Dr. Wes Stubblefield agrees and added that this disease can affect anyone. "Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that can infect anyone having sex by any method, whether that's, you know, any type of sex, oral, vaginal, anal, anything like that. You can't get it by things like doorknobs or toilet seats or things like that."
Dr. Dionne said it can appear as a sore at the site where the germ got into the body. "But that sore is usually in a place that you can't see very well and it's painless, so you often don't know that it's there."
Furthermore, screening is critical for all women multiple times during pregnancy and at delivery. "To make sure that that that we prevent syphilis from transferring to the newborn. that's what all this messaging has been about. the syphilis can essentially be prevented in the newborn if the if the mothers are treated effectively," explained Stubblefield.