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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of babies born with syphilis has more than doubled in the last four years and last year reached a 20-year high.
Syphilis can be passed from a pregnant mother to her unborn baby through the placenta. The infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths and infants born with it can suffer from a wide variety of serious health problems, including malformations, seizures, anemia and jaundice.
Congenital syphilis can be treated with penicillin, but the damage caused by the disease can last a lifetime.
The elimination of syphilis is almost complete by the year 2000, said Dr. Gail Bolan, Director of CDC STD Prevention. "The Congress has given its support. They even argued that our work on STDs would prepare us for bioterrorism, "she said.
"The cost analysis showed that billions would be saved by investing in disposal, and we had a much more robust public health system at that time," she said. "We really reduced syphilis to a low level."
But, according to the new report, "progress has been negated".
In 2017, there were 101,567 cases of syphilis reported. Of these, 30,644 were primary and secondary cases – the earliest and most infectious stages of the disease.
This represents an increase of 10.5% over 2016 and 72.7% since 2013. The number of syphilis cases has increased every year since 2013.
At the same time, the number of cases of congenital syphilis has also steadily increased from 362 in 2013 to 918 cases in 2017, a national rate of 23.3 per 100,000 live births in 2017.
The highest rate of congenital diseases was observed in Louisiana, with 93.4 cases per 100,000 births. Rates were also high in Nevada, California, Texas and Florida.
The CDC recommends that all pregnant women be screened for syphilis at the first prenatal visit, with additional testing at the beginning of the third trimester for women at increased risk or living in a community where the prevalence of syphilis is high.
Treatment with penicillin is inexpensive and effective, but according to Mr. Bolan, about 34% of women who give birth to babies with syphilis have not received prenatal care.
"Congenital syphilis is a useless tragedy," she said. "We need all sectors of our society to help us if we want to reverse these trends – the health care and public health sectors, communities, policy makers, researchers and industry.
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