Congenital syphilis jumped tenfold over the last decade

[mountaineer]

Congenital syphilis jumped tenfold over the last decade
The CDC is tracking a spike in deadly and preventable cases of STDs passed to infants.
By Alice Miranda Ollstein
11/07/2023 01:01 PM EST
Politico

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling for “urgent action” to address a tenfold rise over the last decade in cases of congenital syphilis — when the life-threatening infection is passed to an infant during birth. The agency found that the vast majority of the cases, nearly 90 percent, could have been prevented with better access to testing and treatment, a warning sign that vulnerable people are falling through the cracks of the American medical system.

“It’s really disturbing,” Dr. Laura Bachmann, the chief medical officer for STD prevention at CDC, said in an interview. “We need to do things differently because obviously what we’re doing now is not working.”

Congenital syphilis, which was nearly eliminated at the turn of this century, jumped 755 percent over the last decade, according to CDC data released Tuesday, reaching 3,761 cases in 2022. The rise occurred across all geographic regions as well as racial and ethnic groups, but the worst rates were among American Indian and Alaska natives and Black and Hispanic parents.

Agency researchers also found that in the vast majority of those cases, patients were not tested during pregnancy, and many who were tested did not receive treatment. About 37 percent of the infected pregnant people did not receive any prenatal care.  ...

Please find me a town that does not offer free pre-natal health care - or free STD preventative care - especially in the black or American Indian communities. I'll happily be proven wrong, but would be surprised.

[Wingnut]

Back in the dark ages, when I got married you had to have a blood test and they tested for the big "S".  Sometime later, it was decided the test cost to much for minorities.  But, that really made no sense since most minorities stopped getting married and just became "baby daddies".

[Fishrrman]

I'd like to see a demographic breakdown of these cases.
(but I predict that we won't...)