The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for the prioritization of public health since their 2022 STI report showed a rise in syphilis and congenital syphilis cases.
There’s a total of 207,255 cases of syphilis and 3,755 cases of congenital syphilis reported in the United States.
Unlike chlamydia cases, which are leveling, and gonorrhea’s nearly 9% decrease in a year, syphilis cases rose 17% in a year (80% increase since 2018), and congenital syphilis saw an alarming 30.6% rise in a year (183.4% increase since 2018).
South Dakota currently has the highest rates of general syphilis cases in the nation, with a rate of 84 cases per 100,000 population—double New Mexico, the second-highest state.
Health experts are also worried about the steady growth in congenital syphilis—when the disease transmits to a pregnant mother’s baby—due to the threat it imposes on babies’ health. Although every state has at least one case, Texas, California, Arizona, Louisiana and Florida represented 57% of all reported congenital syphilis infections in the nation.
It has led to 282 stillbirths and infant deaths in 2022.
Although anyone sexually active can contract the disease, younger people ages 15 to 24, gay and bisexual men, pregnant people, and racial and ethnic minority groups are highly impacted.
In truth, racial and ethnic minorities are persistently disproportionately affected by the disease.
While non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native people have the highest rate of reported cases in 2022, African Americans are the second-highest, with 19.9% of Black women reported having primary and secondary syphilis and 70.9% of Black men contracting it in 2022.
According to researchers at the Coalition for Applied Modeling for Prevention (CAMP), Black and Hispanic women were between 2.20 and 6.42 times more likely annually to contract syphilis than their white counterparts.
With this rapid growth, health officials are calling for the interference of STI prevention and health services to combat the epidemic. However, the limited access to care for Black communities is a part of the problem. Poverty and the deficiency of insurance and regular care sources are factors that bar Black people from receiving STD and STI care.
Laura Bachmann, the acting director of the CDC’s Division of STDs, urged STI prevention and health services to intervene and improve access to STI testing and treatment.
“There are no shortcuts, and we have to meet people where they are. Some people face tremendous barriers to STI prevention and health services,” Bachmann said. “So, the most important work is often outside the clinic, whether it be reaching out to communities with testing, interviewing patients to offer services to their partners, or delivering treatment directly to someone.”
People must be aware that the symptoms of syphilis are often mild and hard to notice because there are different stages, and signs come and go.
There are four stages of syphilis: primary, secondary, latent and tertiary—all with different signs and symptoms.
The primary stage comprises sores forming on the location where syphilis entered your body—penis, vagina, anus, rectum and lips or mouth.
In the secondary stage, skin rashes form, whether or not the sore(s) are healed and appear on one or multiple body parts, looking red, rough or reddish-brown.
Other symptoms include fever, swollen lymph glands, sore throat, patchy hair loss, headaches, weight loss, muscle aches and fatigue. It’s imperative to get tested because the latent stage is the “quiet” period where no symptoms form, but syphilis can still be in the body.
Although uncommon, people can enter the tertiary stage—when untreated syphilis attacks the organ system.
Pregnant women are advised to get tested at least three times during their pregnancy for syphilis.
