JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – If you gathered 100 Mississippians in a room, statistically, at least 1 of them has an STD.
The STD rate, depending on your source, is around 1,200 per 100,000 Mississippian, or 1 per every 100. The state has long been plagued by high rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and HIV.
In years prior, Hinds County had the dishonor of having the highest STD rate of any county in the country.
However, the state’s current boom of congenital syphilis, which follows a nationwide trend, has the medical community now labeling it an epidemic.
According to a 2023 report from the CDC, Mississippi ranked 3rd in the country for reported cases of primary and secondary syphilis. In that same report, Mississippi ranked 5th for gonorrhea and 2nd for chlamydia.
Syphilis, like other sexually transmitted diseases, is spread through bacteria upon contact with infected fluids; this usually happening through sex or various sex acts.
The tiny corkscrew-like organism is a spirochete, or germ, of syphilis, as seen under the special “darkfield” microscope used in diagnosis of that disease, seen Sept. 28, 1937. It’s average length is 3/10,000 of an inch, or approximately the diameter of a red blood cell. (AP Photo)(AP)
With most STDs, the symptoms can make themselves known in a plethora of ways, including painful sores, a burning sensation, or a type of discharge.
What makes syphilis different, and in some ways harder to detect, is that, at first, its symptoms can be minor – if any at all.
Dr. Kayla Stover, professor and vice chair of pharmacy practice at The University of Mississippi, explained that a symptom one might have in the first stage of syphilis is a painless sore, or chancre, that would go away even without treatment.
But though it is no longer visibly apparent, says Dr. Stover, the disease, if left untreated, could lie undetected in the body for years. And while lying undetected, the disease could slowly progress in its victim’s body, leading to more damaging stages.
“And each of those stages has symptoms that could be mistaken for something else,” Dr. Stover says, which is why the disease is often referred to as “The Great Imitator.”
“Unless you are testing for syphilis, you might not know it’s there,” she continued.
In its second stage, or secondary syphilis, a rash might appear, usually on the palms.
It’s important to note here that in its early stages, syphilis is easily treatable, usually only requiring a shot of penicillin. But left untreated, the disease could continue to evolve, and one might enter the third stage: latent syphilis.
In this stage, the disease could cause damage to internal organs.
The last stage, tertiary syphilis, is the disease at its most severe, causing damage to the brain or heart. Paralysis and dementia are possible during this stage.
During all four stages, the carrier would still be infectious, possibly spreading it to various sexual partners. And if you are a mother, it could also spread to your child.
This is called congenital syphilis, and Mississippi has seen a 1,000% spike in the past few years, from 10 cases in 2016 to 110 in 2022.
In congenital syphilis, the child is infected either in utero or as the child is being born. The complications of the now-infected child, says Dr. Stover, could either be mild or could lead to the child’s death.
Also of note: a rising population contracting syphilis is the age range from 14 to 24 years old. In those populations, a threat from the disease is infertility.
“Those are some of the challenges [from obtaining syphilis],” says Dr. Stover. “As simple as you’re putting other people at risk, to you could be damaging, long-term, your life, your children, your expectations.”
Deja Abdul-Haqq, the director of My Brother’s Keeper, a local nonprofit focusing on public health, says they began seeing a spike in syphilis cases after the COVID-19 pandemic.
As for the reason for the spike, she said, “To break it down really simple: condomless sex.”
This April 1, 2016 file photos shows a billboard above a gas station that reads “Feel The Burn,” a play on then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign slogan, “Feel The Bern.” It’s actually promoting testing for sexually transmitted diseases. The number of cases of STDs – chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis – in California reached a record high in 2017,and officials are particularly concerned by a spike in stillbirths due to congenital syphilis, state health authorities said Monday, May 14, 2018. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, File)(Nick Ut | AP)
Abdul-Haqq would say there is a lack of information regarding condom use in preventing sexually transmitted diseases. While this would seemingly be a basic concept to most, in Mississippi, it’s complicated.
In Mississippi schools, sex-education classes cannot include instruction and demonstrations on how to use a condom. In 2015, a teacher in Starkville was suspended after a student in her class put a prophylactic on a cucumber.
That same year, a teacher went viral for side-stepping the condom rule by demonstrating how to put a sock on a foot.
Likewise, there is the lack, in Abdul-Haqq’s eyes, of information pertaining to modern prevention tools like PrEP, a medication which can prevent HIV infection, and Doxy-PEP, another medication that can prevent STDs such as syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea.
“Imagine if all of these mothers that were exposed to syphilis during sex would have gotten Doxy-PEP within 72 hours,” she said.
Dr. Stover would echo some of Abdul-Haqq’s same points, saying that Mississippi’s sex education has not been as progressive as other states.
And in the era of medications such as PrEP and Doxy-PEP, Dr. Stover says that people may not be as scared of unprotected sex as they used to be.
According to recent data, Black men in Mississippi have higher rates of syphilis than others. A 2019 MSDH report found that of the 690 cases of primary and secondary syphilis that year, 338 were in Black men.
The second-highest rate was found in Black women.
“The information regarding the solution to these issues usually gets to the Black communities late,” Abdul-Haqq said. “So, it’s not so much the individual, it’s the environment that does not promote access to all of these prevention methods.”
Throughout the years, billboard campaigns arose in the state and across the country in an effort to raise awareness about STDs.
The billboards, initiated by the AIDs Healthcare Foundation, have phrases on them such as “STDs are Timeless” and “Testing is Caring.”
The same foundation also has a billboard campaign focusing on syphilis; those billboards reading things like “Syphilis is Curable.”
While well-intentioned, Abdul-Haqq says these billboard campaigns may not be doing enough for those who may need the information the most.
“Culturally and aesthetically, it doesn’t engage the Black community, and the message is too vague,” she said. “We have to hit people with data.”
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