Baltimore\u2019s yearslong struggle with sexually transmitted infections now has a troubling new trend: a sharp rise in the number of babies born with syphilis.<\/p>\n
The bacterial disease among the city\u2019s youngest has quadrupled in less than 10 years, spiking to almost four times the national rate. <\/p>\n
The often-stigmatized infections are completely curable if caught in time. But left untreated, even for a short time, the outcome can be catastrophic. Newborns who contract infections from their mothers during pregnancy or delivery can develop irreversible problems, such as blindness, deafness and bone deformities \u2014 or even die.<\/p>\n
Experts say there are a variety of factors at play, including a reluctance by some health care providers to broach the subject in the exam room. <\/p>\n
\u201cProviders are incredibly uncomfortable in talking to patients about sex,\u201d said Barbara Wilgus, a Johns Hopkins nurse specializing in sexually transmitted infections who also sees patients in the city. \u201cI know this as a provider and a patient. In all my years going to the doctor, the times I\u2019ve actually been asked about it is so low.\u201d <\/p>\n
The outbreak could also become a strain on public coffers. A test for a pregnant woman costs about $8, but care for a child with congenital syphilis can skyrocket. Significantly delaying treatment for an affected child leads to medical costs averaging more than $650,000 per infant, according to an analysis of data from the state\u2019s Medicaid program, which pays for about 40% of all births in Maryland. <\/p>\n
City health officials acknowledge the severity of the problem crept up on them, and are now rushing to test and treat more people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went through the pandemic, and our eye was not on congenital syphilis,\u201d said Rebecca Dineen, assistant Baltimore health commissioner for maternal and child health. <\/p>\n
Syphilis is a common sexually transmitted infection in adults, with 190,000 cases last year, federal data show. In the earliest stage, it can look like a single sore where the bacteria entered the body. Tracking the infection\u2019s progress then gets tricky, as it develops into a rash and cold-like symptoms for some, or remains largely invisible, with no symptoms, for others. If it is unaddressed for years, syphilis can damage the brain and other vital organs. <\/p>\n
While Baltimore\u2018s rate far surpasses the nation\u2018s, U.S cases in newborns are also at a record high \u2014 nearly 4,000 cases \u2014 despite a drop in adult infections, according to 2024 federal data<\/a> released last month.<\/p>\n By the end of 2023, the city\u2019s rate of congenital syphilis was nearly four times the state and national average of just over 100 for every 100,000 births. (In Baltimore, the infection rate for adults is similarly outsized compared with the rest of the country, clocking in at roughly four times the national rate.)<\/p>\n Dr. Adena Greenbaum, assistant Baltimore health commissioner of clinical services and HIV\/STI prevention, described the city\u2019s efforts to bring down syphilis in babies as \u201ca high priority.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s an alarming turn for an infection that was almost eliminated in the 1990s. Officials say infections also are causing a significant number of miscarriages and stillbirths. Public health officials cite a mix of reasons. <\/p>\n Once a major problem only for men who have sex with men, syphilis now infects more women of child-bearing years, a trend exacerbated by the rise in drug use. Experts say that in Baltimore, the infections disproportionately affect lower-income Black women.<\/p>\n Some women tell their doctors that they were unaware of their often-painless infections with no visible symptoms. Other expectant mothers did not receive prenatal care or even routine care that might have flagged an infection. <\/p>\n In other cases, doctors weren\u2019t uniformly performing the blood tests or weren\u2019t understanding or passing on results. And some women were treated only to be reinfected by their partners. <\/p>\n A national shortage of the antibiotic recommended for pregnant women further complicated the response, forcing some providers to spend time scrambling for doses.<\/p>\n In response, city health officials tapped state funding to create a public communications plan<\/a> designed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs to encourage more pregnant women to get tested. The city sent extra staff to three local hospital emergency rooms to educate pregnant women about syphilis and how to get tested.<\/a> And starting Oct. 13, the city\u2019s sexual health clinic will be moved to Saratoga Street from the city\u2019s North Avenue building that has long been in disrepair.<\/p>\n Dr. Jeanne Sheffield, an infectious disease expert and professor of gynecology and obstetrics in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said some women may resist testing because they don\u2019t feel sick or don\u2019t think they could be infected. But she recommends universal testing for all mothers throughout their pregnancies so they don\u2019t miss new cases or reinfections, and early use of antibiotics can prevent transmission. <\/p>\n Today across Maryland, health care providers must test the pregnant women they see for syphilis in addition to HIV, according to state law. Syphilis in babies, according to Sheffield, is markedly different from other sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhea or chlamydia because of how serious and irreversible its complications can be.<\/p>\n Wilgus, who also is a program administrator for the STD\/HIV Prevention Training Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, said she finds women who make it to a doctor are typically willing to do what it takes for a healthy pregnancy. Often their partners are, too, so a test generally isn\u2019t a big deal.<\/p>\n The bigger challenge, she said, is convincing health providers to discuss sexual health with all of their patients as part of their normal routine. That would likely reduce stigma around STIs and promote more testing for all patients. <\/p>\n City and state officials say they are now working in earnest to reduce infections. The key, according to Dr. Meena Seshamani, Maryland\u2019s health secretary, is making sure patients \u201ccan get access to the services they need and that it\u2019s a safe space where they can talk about things that are more sensitive.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baltimore\u2019s yearslong struggle with sexually transmitted infections now has a troubling new trend: a sharp rise in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[3876,20734,526,97,9572,8492],"class_list":{"0":"post-212938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-back-to-school","9":"tag-covid","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-measles","13":"tag-vaccine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}