The number of congenital syphilis cases is on the rise in the state of Mississippi, USA; several doctors express their concerns.
Former Mississippi state health official Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who led the state’s fight against COVID-19, expressed his concerns on Twitter last week.
“Syphilis in newborns should be a thing of the past…but in MS [Mississippi]we have seen an increase > 1000% since 2016”, he lamented.
“Several newborns from the MS [Mississippi] recently died from this fully treatable condition,” he added.
The problem also affects the African-American community more severely.
Dr. Dobbs attributes the increase to inadequate prenatal health care, including the lack of testing for syphilis.
Dr. Steve Threlkeld, medical director of infectious diseases at Baptist Memorial Healthcare in Memphis, Tennessee, points to the precariousness of the public health system.
“The numbers have skyrocketed and I think, like for a lot of people, the public health system has been stretched,” he said.
Many health care workers have left their jobs as a result of the COVID epidemic, so there are not enough left, according to Dr Threlkeld, to follow up on pregnant women whose the syphilis test is positive.
“This is one of those examples where we have the data, we know the cases, but you have to have the manpower to diagnose the patients and then do the contact tracing and the follow-up to get better. make sure they keep coming back for treatment,” said Dr Threlkeld.
The latter also points out that the increase in congenital syphilis is not unique to Mississippi.
“In recent years, Mississippi has led the nation in gonorrhea and has come close in syphilis. But it’s a bigger problem, at least when it comes to congenital syphilis, especially in the southern and southwestern United States,” he said.