Annie Oeth authored this press release for UMMC.
Congenital syphilis, or infection of a baby from a mother infected with syphilis, is dramatically increasing in Mississippi, according to state data.
“Mississippi is experiencing a frightening increase in pregnant women with syphilis and in turn, babies born with syphilis,” said Dr. Thomas Dobbs, dean of the John D. Bower School of Population Health at UMMC. “This is a devastating condition that leads to miscarriage, stillbirth or death about 40 percent of the time if the mother contracts syphilis during pregnancy, depending on the stage of maternal illness. Mississippi has experienced an increase of greater than 900 percent of babies born with syphilis in the past six years.”
Congenital syphilis can also result in premature birth.
Nationally, the rate of syphilis has increased by 147 percent since 2016.
Syphilis is easily cured with penicillin, and thus protecting the baby as well as the mother, he said. A bacterial disease that usually spreads by sexual contact, syphilis symptoms begin with a sore. Syphilis bacteria can remain inactive in the body for years before becoming active again. Untreated syphilis can result in life-threatening damage to the heart, brain and other organs.
Syphilis can be passed to unborn children through the placenta or during birth. Most babies with congenital syphilis have no symptoms, but some children have a rash that may appear on the soles of their feet and the palms of their hands which can peel later, or present with pneumonia or blood disorders. Later, the syphilis symptoms of blindness, deafness, seizures and neurodevelopmental delays, teeth and skeletal deformities and the collapse of the bridge of the nose are found.
“Several newborns have died recently due to this entirely preventable problem,” Dobbs said. Other children have been diagnosed with severe neurological development disorders because of untreated syphilis.
“This is so tragic because this is preventable,” said Dr. Charlotte Hobbs, professor of pediatric infectious diseases. “Penicillin was the first antibiotic synthesized. If mothers receive adequate treatment, the risk of congenital syphilis drops dramatically.”
Several factors are driving the rising rate of congenital syphilis in Mississippi, he said.
“Delayed prenatal care and testing is the primary operational reason that women are not getting treatment, followed by delays in accessing antibiotics,” he said. “To combat this public health crisis, our priority must be to engage moms early in pregnancy and ensure testing and treatment. This will require a committed partnership between physicians and clinics, public health, and insurers, primarily Medicaid.”
Mississippi has the second highest rate of syphilis in the country. About 53 percent of congenital syphilis is reported from southern states, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hobbs said.
“Many mothers don’t understand that syphilis can kill,” Hobbs said. “Penicillin treatment of infected mothers has 98 percent efficacy in preventing congenital syphilis. Despite evidence-based prevention, congenital syphilis cases nationwide are at a 20-year high.”
The key to addressing this crisis, the doctors say, is early prenatal care, which improves maternal-infant health, reduces infant mortality and saves money.
“Structural barriers, primarily the lack of insurance and maternal care deserts, limit access to early maternal care,” Dobbs said. “From my discussions with physicians across the state, uninsured pregnant women must pay for care out-of-pocket prior to Medicaid approval. Although Medicaid will reimburse retroactively, most clinics require either payment or proof of insurance. This costly delay often puts women well beyond the first trimester before receiving care.”
Testing pregnant women for syphilis would also help mothers get the care needed to prevent the spread of syphilis to their babies, he said.
20 comments:
"Structural barriers"? Like needing someone else to pay? Those kind of barriers?
Maybe these would-be-mothers should consider the sexual barriers presented by their syphilitic dance partners first.
Which socioeconomic classes are most effected, and by how much?
This entire article phaces the cause of the syphillis crisis on the mother. Not a damn word about the male. Notice I said male,not father or dad.
The pro-birth party doesn’t care what happens to babies once they’re born. If they did, they’d expand Medicaid.
It’s not in their best political interest though, apparently.
Yes but we want babies to be born no matter how poor their prenatal care or care after birth may be.
12:23 -- False Dilemma. There are other possibilities. Just because you don't want to permit more taxpayer provided healthcare doesn't necessarily mean you don't care what happens to babies. I total reject the notion that because we are not going to permit the murder of unborn children that we must provide those mothers and those babies with government subsidized healthcare.
"...40 percent of the time if the mother contracts syphilis during pregnancy..."
How many of them HAD syphilis long before they managed to become pregnant. Let me suggest 100%. Nobody 'contracts syphilis during pregnancy'.
Allow me to award the golden dunce-cap to whoever authored this report/article.
Who's fault is this? Quick, someone call Jerry Mitchell.
The nirvana being promoted of what life would be like with medicaid expanded leads the unsuspecting to conclude that all doctors accept Medicaid which is simply not the case. Nationally 1 in 5 OB/GYNs do not. The progressive war on rural America is having its intended effect. The maternal care deserts in Mississippi overlap with the rural hospitals that can't economically make it because of significant population loss. Now the liberals, er, Democrats (and Barksdalers) want the actual taxpayers to foot the bill for levels of rural medical service as if the (population) losses had never happened.
By the way CJ, journalists aren't licensed nor have to pass any sort of test. Stop peddling YOUR bullshit opinions as facts.
"I total reject the notion that because we are not going to permit the murder of unborn children that we must provide those mothers and those babies with government subsidized healthcare."
That's because you're pro-birth, not pro-LIFE!
These statistics are nothing to clap about.
So to address root cause, more data is needed to be analyzed.
What is breakdown of
1 race
2 mother's age
3 marital status
4 employment status
5 education level
That's because you're pro-birth, not pro-LIFE!February 17, 2023 at 3:05 PM
Since 'life' exists both before and after birth, at what point in time is there a difference? Seems you want to split a particular hair. Well, I'll bite....go ahead.
7:27 At the time of quickening which is roughly half way through pregnancy (that is what the Catholic Church said not long ago…)
@ 2:13 - There is no 'war on rural America'. There is a growing distaste for continued and ramped-up entitlement programs for those who choose not to help pull the wagon.
Ever since LBJ had JFK bumped-off, this nation has rewarded poor choices. It's who we are, ain't it?
@3:09 - I see what you did there.
5:18 has been saying the same thing I have for years. Our “issues” began after the give away programs began. It destroyed the two parent family system that was in place and was, and still is very much needed. 11:35 understands it also.
Murder capital of the US, (not the world but it feels like it) more STD’s than you can shake a stick at and what does it tell you when billboards advertise to get checked? This is a cultural issue and for the liberals to not say it is a travesty.
Health Department and UMMC staff are always anxious to opine, yet they offer nothing regarding culture, demographics, marital status or number of partners.
Is it WOKE to exclude those from the conversation or simply off limits?
@12:14 - you may not realize this, but we are overwhelmingly a Republican state. Not sure how you’re blaming the state’s problems on the people who don’t have any control to do anything.
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