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Syphilis Cases in U.S. Newborns Rise 10-Fold Over a Decade

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The number of newborns with syphilis in the United States surged more than 10-fold in the last decade, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Tuesday.

The agency said 3,761 cases were recorded in 2022, the highest in over 30 years, up from 334 cases in 2012. The 2022 cases included 231 stillbirths and 51 infant deaths.

Nine out of 10 cases might have been prevented with timely testing and treatment during pregnancy, said Laura Bachmann, chief medical officer in CDC’s Division of STD Prevention.

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that can cause serious health problems without treatment, and during pregnancy, can lead to stillbirth, miscarriage, infant death, and maternal and infant morbidity.

By treating patients quickly, healthcare professionals could reduce some of the greatest hurdles to the care some mothers need, said Bachmann. (Read more from “Syphilis Cases in U.S. Newborns Rise 10-Fold Over a Decade” HERE)

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STD’s Exploding Across U.S., ESP. Alaska; Here’s Where the Rates Are the Highest

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By New York Post. The US is in the midst of an “out of control” STD epidemic, with cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia on the rise nationwide.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says gonorrhea cases spiked by 28% across the country in 2021, while total syphilis cases soared by a staggering 74%.

However, not all American areas are experiencing the same rates of infection, with a new data breakdown by US News & World Report revealing the 10 states with the highest sexually transmitted disease rates. . .

Seven of the 10 states with the highest rates were located below the Mason-Dixon line, including North Carolina, which clocked in 10th, with a total STD rate of 922.2 per 100,000 residents. . .

Alaska was in the third spot, largely due to sky-high rates of chlamydia cases, with the data showing 760.4 per 100,000 residents received positive results after testing for the infection in 2021. (Read more from “STD’s Exploding Across U.S., ESP. Alaska; Here’s Where the Rates Are the Highest” HERE)

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STD Rates Skyrocketing Among Certain Minorities

By US News. Rates and cases of major sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. have been increasing largely unabated, with more than 2.5 million cases of chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea reported in 2021, the most recent year for which data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is available.

That amounts to a combined rate of 762.7 cases per 100,000 people in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, an increase of 6% over 2020’s rate of 721.6 per 100,000, according to a U.S. News analysis of the data. Between 2020 and 2021, the rate of total syphilis cases in the U.S. – including all stages of the infection, congenital syphilis and syphilitic stillbirth – rose by 32%, CDC figures show. The rate of chlamydia cases increased 4%, while the rate of gonorrhea infections rose 5% over the same period.

Officials have expressed particular concern about a rise in congenital syphilis, which occurs when a mother passes a syphilis infection to her baby while pregnant and can result in the infant’s death. The rate of congenital syphilis cases rose by nearly 30% between 2020 and 2021, while the nearly 3,000 cases of the disease in 2021 marked a more than 750% increase since 2012.

By race and ethnicity, CDC data shows the rate of chlamydia infections in 2021 was highest among Black individuals at 1,081.9 cases per 100,000, while Asians had the lowest rate at 95.7 per 100,000. Black individuals also had the highest rate of reported gonorrhea cases in 2021 at 652.9 infections per 100,000 people, while Asians had the lowest rate at 37.8 per 100,000. American Indian and Alaska Native people had the highest rate of primary and secondary syphilis cases in 2021, at 46.7 per 100,000. The rate of congenital syphilis also was highest in connection with American Indian and Alaska Native mothers in 2021, at 384.5 cases per 100,000 live births. (Read more from “STD Rates Skyrocketing Among Certain Minorities” HERE)

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State Reports Disturbing Increase in Babies Born With Syphilis

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Mississippi reported a 900 percent increase in babies born with congenital syphilis in the last five years, according to an analysis published Saturday.

Hospitals in Mississippi treated at least 102 cases of congenital syphilis in 2021, compared to just 10 cases in 2016, according to data shared by NBC News. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that passes from mother to child during pregnancy, and is a life-threatening disorder that can sometimes go months without showing symptoms.

Children born with syphilis who go more than three months without treatment can suffer significant complications, NBC noted. The disease can have wide-ranging impacts, including the deformation of bone structure, jaundice, liver and spleen enlargement and significant brain and nerve problems such as blindness and deafness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . .

The growth in congenital syphilis is not unique to Mississippi. National data from the CDC suggest that the frequency of its diagnosis has doubled from 941 in 2017 to 2,677 in 2021. A majority of children born with syphilis in Mississippi were born to black mothers, NBC noted. (Read more from “State Reports Disturbing Increase in Babies Born With Syphilis” HERE)

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STD Epidemic in U.S. Is ‘Out of Control,’ Warn Experts, CDC

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Sharply rising cases of some sexually transmitted diseases — including a 26% rise in new syphilis infections reported last year — are prompting U.S. health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts.

“It is imperative that we … work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD) prevention in the U.S.,” said Dr. Leandro Mena of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a speech Monday at a medical conference on sexually transmitted diseases. . .

And an international outbreak of monkeypox, which is being spread mainly between men who have sex with other men, has further highlighted the nation’s worsening problem with diseases spread mostly through sex.

David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, called the situation “out of control.”

Officials are working on new approaches to the problem, such as home-test kits for some STDs that will make it easier for people to learn they are infected and to take steps to prevent spreading it to others, Mena said. (Read more from “STD Epidemic in U.S. Is ‘Out of Control,’ Warn Experts, CDC” HERE)

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CDC: 110,197,000 Venereal Infections In US; Nation Creating New STIs Faster Than Jobs, College Diplomas

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According to new data released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 19.7 million new venereal infections in the United States in 2008, bringing the total number of existing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the U.S. at that time to 110,197,000.

The 19.7 million new STIs in 2008 vastly outpaced the new jobs and college graduates created in the United States that year or any other year on record, according to government data. The competition was not close.

The STI study referenced by the CDC estimated that 50 percent of the new infections in 2008 occurred among people in the 15-to-24 age bracket. In fact, of the 19,738,800 total new STIs in the United States in 2008, 9,782,650 were among Americans in the 15-to-24 age bracket.

By contrast, there were 1,524,092 bachelor’s degrees awarded in the United States in the 2007-2008 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That means the total number of new STIs in 2008 outpaced the total number of new bachelor’s degrees by nearly 13 to 1, and the number of new STIs among Americans in the 15-to-24 age bracket outnumbered new bachelor’s degrees by more than 6 to 1.

While the CDC estimates that there were 19.7 million new STIs in the United States in 2008, data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the total number of people employed in the country actually declined by 2.9 million during that year.

Read more from this story HERE.

Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea triggers alarm over ‘superbug’

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On Thursday, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are scheduled to release new treatment guidelines to slow the growth of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea in the United States.

These guidelines are coming none too soon, said William Smith, executive director of the National Coalition of STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) Directors.

“It is pretty clear that we have already seen significant resistance to the existing [gonorrhea] treatments, and internationally, we have seen complete treatment failures,” he said. “So right now is the time to be just ahead of this, and to try and figure out how we can control it a bit longer with the existing resources that we’ve got.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Starting this month, Obamacare begins to cater to promiscuity

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By Susan Jones.  Starting August 1, the Democrats’ health care law — as implemented by the Health and Human Services Administration — entitles 47 million women to eight new “prevention-related” health care services “without paying more out of their own pocket,” HHS reminded Americans on Tuesday.

In addition to the controversial contraceptive mandate, HHS says virtually all health plans must cover – at no charge — the following items for sexually active women.

— HIV screening and counseling: “Sexually-active women will have access to annual counseling on HIV,” HHS said, noting that women are at increased risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.

— Counseling on sexually transmitted infections: “Sexually-active women will have access to annual counseling on sexually transmitted infections,” HHS said. “These sessions have been shown to reduce risky behavior in patients, yet only 28 percent of women aged 18-44 years reported that they had discussed STIs with a doctor or nurse.”

— HPV (human papillomavirus): This sexually transmitted disease is linked to cervical cancer. According to HHS, “Women who are 30 or older will have access to high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing every three years, regardless of Pap smear results.”  Read more from this story HERE.

Sen. Harkin:  Free birth control mandated by Obamacare because women have severe menstrual cramping

By Elizabeth Harrington. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) today justified what the Catholic bishops of the United States have unanimously called an “unjust and illegal mandate” that forces Catholic business owners to provide coverage for free sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs because, Harkin said, some women need birth control pills to deal with menstrual pain.

“There are many women who take birth control pills, for example, because they have terrible menstrual cramps once a month, some of them almost incapacitated, can’t work,” said Harkin. “I know of young women myself who, because of this, aren’t able to work and be productive, and it’s prescribed by their doctor.”

In an interview with CNSNews.com, Harkin at no time contested that the regulation required Catholics to act against their faith. Instead, he likened forcing a Catholic to purchase health insurance that covers sterilizations, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs to forcing Quakers to pay taxes to cover a war.

“It’s like a Quaker who pays income taxes,” said Harkin. “They have to pay income taxes. Quakers, as you know, have unalterably been opposed to war and military spending. Yes, some of their taxes have to go to that.”

The “preventive services” regulation, issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), goes into effect on Aug. 1. It mandates that nearly all health insurance plans must offer sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge.  Read more from this story HERE.