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U.S. sees jump in rate of newborns with syphilis

By Lenny Bernstein, The Washington Post
Published: November 16, 2015, 5:59am

The rate of newborns with syphilis jumped 38 percent between 2012 and 2014 to its highest level in more than a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, though the overall numbers remained small.

The disease, which is transmitted from infected mothers to their fetuses, was found in 11.6 of every 100,000 births in 2014, up sharply from 8.4 in 2012 and the highest rate since 2001, researchers reported in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Total cases were 458 last year, up from 334 in 2012, the data show. All parts of the country and every major racial and ethnic group experienced an increase. Whites showed the largest percentage jump, but blacks and Hispanic women gave birth to more children with the disease.

Lack of prenatal care among mothers was a factor in the increase: 100 of the women had no such care, and there was no information on care for 44 others. Syphilis is easily treated with penicillin if detected in pregnancy, yet even among mothers who saw a doctor at least once, 21 were never tested for the disease, and 52 were tested early in pregnancy but were later infected.

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