The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts, recently recommended pregnant women undergo early screening for syphilis, a sexually transmitted bacterial infection.
The experts warned a newborn baby with syphilis is at risk of hearing or vision loss, skeletal deformities, nerve damage, developmental delays, and an enlarged liver.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been on alert and reported that 2023 had the highest number of cases since 1950. Rates have increased for both congenital and maternal syphilis, which tripled from 2016 to 2022.
Researchers associated the alarming data with the “erosion of public health capacity.”
