Across the board, sexually transmitted infections are on a “shocking” upward trajectory, according to public health experts. Preliminary data from 2021 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in September shows upticks in cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia — but outpacing them is a disease that the US at one point nearly succeeded in eliminating: syphilis.
Most concerning is the data on who is getting infected with syphilis: Case rates in women and babies rose almost threefold between 2017 and 2021 — a much larger increase than the rise among men, and larger still than the uptick in other sexually transmitted infections.
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The abrupt rise of the infection in women and babies ought to sound an alarm. When a baby has syphilis, it’s usually because it was infected while in the womb; about 40 percent of pregnancies in people with syphilis result in the death of the fetus or newborn. In the US, prenatal care involves syphilis testing, so delivering a baby while having untreated syphilis signals that the mother faced a barrier to getting prenatal care. When many people are delivering babies with congenital syphilis, it’s a sign that America’s health care system is failing women on a larger scale — especially women of color, who according to the data have the highest rates of infection.
