- Congenital syphilis hospitalizations increased 10-fold between 2016 and 2022
- Majority of babies were diagnosed and hospitalized right when they were born
- READ MORE: Newborn syphilis rate DOUBLES in just four years, CDC reveals
The number of newborn babies in Mississippi hospitalized with syphilis spiked by more than 1,000 percent over just six years, a study says.
Babies born with congenital syphilis (CS), which is passed from mother to fetus, rose from 10 cases in 2016 to 110 in 2022.
The raw numbers seem low, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as state health officials are concerned about the rapid rate at which CS diagnoses are increasing.
The condition raises an infant’s risk of bone damage, anemia, jaundice, nerve damage, and meningitis. It can be treated with antibiotics but it kills about 40 percent of babies born with it.
Maternal drug use is driving the increase, as the rate of mothers using drugs while pregnant is the highest it’s been since 2017. Mississippi also has insufficient pre-pregnancy screening which could prevent unnecessary illness and death.
Nearly a quarter of babies with congenital syphilis were born to mothers with a substance use problem. Almost 70 percent of those mothers used cannabis, while about 27 percent used cocaine
From 2016 through 2022, CS hospitalization rates in Mississippi increased more than 10- fold
As Mississippi’s rates of babies born with CS have risen in recent years, so have instances of babies born too early and too small, which are leading causes of infant death in the state
About a quarter of babies with CS in Mississippi were born to mothers with a substance use disorder and most of the mothers were enrolled in Medicaid, the federal health insurance program that caters to poor Americans.
As Mississippi’s rates of babies born with CS have risen in recent years, so have instances of babies born too early and too small, which are leading causes of infant death in the state.
Of the six deaths associated with CS during the study period, three alone occurred in 2022.
Epidemiologists from Mississippi analyzed hospital discharge data from 2016 to 2022 to better understand the public health crisis that congenital syphilis has become in the state. In that time, congenital syphilis hospitalizations increased 10-fold.
The Mississippi-based researchers said: ‘Although the upward trend was consistent with national-level surveillance data for CS, the upturn in Mississippi was even steeper. This spike is troubling because decades of research have demonstrated the dire health consequences of CS, including prematurity, low birthweight, and death.’
Over that five-year span, 367 babies were hospitalized with CS. The vast majority of them were diagnosed with CS and hospitalized as soon as they were born.
In addition to the sheer numbers of infants hospitalized climbing, the rate at which they were hospitalized for CS has risen too, from two CS hospital admissions for every 10,000 total infant hospital admissions in 2016 to nearly 25 for CS out of 10,000 total in 2022 – a 1,140 percent spike.
Nearly a quarter of babies with CS were born to mothers with some kind of substance use problem, mostly involving cannabis, followed by cocaine, amphetamines, and opioids.
The authors said: ‘During the last 3 years of the study period, there was a gradual but steady increase in the proportion of newborns hospitalized with CS and exposed to illicit substances in utero: 17.7% in 2020, 22.7% in 2021, and 23.8% in 2022.
‘This finding reveals the entanglement between the ongoing drug epidemic and the resurgence of maternal and congenital syphilis and suggests the need for holistic approaches that treat illicit drug use as one way to curtail CS rates’.
Babies with CS were twice as likely to be born prematurely – sooner than 37 weeks’ gestation – and four times as likely to be born dangerously underweight, or below five pounds, eight ounces.
Doctors also found that one in five babies born prematurely and with CS was diagnosed with respiratory distress, typically a result of lungs not having enough time to become fully developed in the womb.
In addition to causing respiratory problems, congenital syphilis can cause a baby to be born with a wide array of other serious problems such as jaundice, the result of a build-up of a substance in the blood called bilirubin which causes a baby’s skin and the white parts of her their eyes to look yellow.
It can also cause the baby’s spleen and liver to swell, it can contribute to anemia caused by a deficit of healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen to the rest of the body, and possibly lead to meningitis which causes swelling of the brain and spinal cord.
Congenital syphilis occurs when a pregnant mother passes syphilis onto their child
On average, newborns with CS weighed 349 g less (mean birthweight 2,788 g) than newborns without CS
Among African American infants, CS hospitalizations increased by 1,029 percent, rising from 7 infants in 2016 to 79 in 2022
The spike in congenital syphilis nationwide mirrors the uptick in men and women contracting the condition nationwide, less than two decades after many thought the disease was all but eliminated.
The reasons for the rise are multifaceted but some of the biggest drivers include: the increase in illicit drug use, a mistrust of the health care system, and the drop in federally-funded sexual health programs, while some public health officials blame dating apps for pushing a culture of casual sex.
The problem is particularly bad in Mississppi, which until March 2023 was one of only a few states that do not mandate syphilis screening for prospective new mothers.
The authors said: ‘By contributing to underscreening, this policy omission led to missed opportunities to detect and treat maternal syphilis before the birth of infants.
‘Providing comprehensive prenatal care, effective screening, and early treatment for pregnant women in Mississippi constitute not only sound public health policy in general but also smart strategies to improve pregnancy outcomes, reduce infant illness and death, curtail medical costs, and promote greater health equity.’
The report was published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
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