Mississippi has seen a significant increase in the number of infants being treated for congenital syphilis.
According to hospital billing data provided to NBC, the number of babies treated for sexually transmitted diseases has surged by more than 900% in the last five years.
Nation’s Poorest State
Over the last two decades, syphilis cases have increased in Mississippi, the nation’s poorest state, as neonatal facilities close in some of the poorest areas.
According to previously disclosed Mississippi State Department of Health data, there were 14 congenital syphilis cases in 2000, with 10 reported the following year.
However, the number of reported cases began to fall after that, with zero cases reported in 2005 and 2006.
The rates began to rise again in 2019 and appeared to worsen during the global pandemic, with over 100 documented cases in 2021, according to data Dobbs provided with NBC News based on hospital billing information.
Simultaneously, early data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that syphilis cases in the United States have more than doubled since 2017, rising from 941 in 2017 to at least 2,677 in 2021.
The Mississippi Department of Health has not yet issued its final 2021 figures, which are dependent on practitioners reporting cases to the state directly.
However, the department discovered in 2020 that black babies accounted for 70% of the state’s congenital syphilis cases, although accounting for only around 42% of the state’s live births that year.
The state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Paul Byers, predicts similar findings in the final 2021 report.
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What Is Syphilis?
Syphilis is a contagious disease that is mainly transmitted through intercourse, but babies can catch it from infected moms as well. The condition causes an ulcer in the site of infection, which usually occurs between 10 and 60 days following infection.
Congenital syphilis can cause distorted bones, severe anemia, enlarged liver and spleen, jaundice, brain and nerve abnormalities such as blindness and hearing, meningitis, and skin rashes in infants. Syphilis can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, preterm, and low birth weight depending on how long a mother has had the disease and when – or if – she receives treatment.
Dr. Anita Henderson, a Hattiesburg-based physician, also stated that in the last three to four years, she has treated more kids with congenital syphilis than she has in her entire 25-year career.
Congenital syphilis develops when a sexually transmitted infection is conveyed from a pregnant mother to her kid.
Symptoms Of Congenital Syphilis
Symptoms of congenital syphilis may include:
- Deformed bones
- Severe anemia
- Enlarged liver or spleen
- Jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes)
- Brain and nerve damage, like blindness or deafness
- Meningitis
- Skin rashes
- Death
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