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How We’re Failing Babies With a Preventable Disease: Congenital Syphilis
A disease treatable with penicillin is exploding in the United States and elsewhere.
Syphilis has existed for centuries, but its most tragic form — when passed from mother to baby — is one we know how to prevent. Congenital syphilis happens when a pregnant person infected with the disease doesn’t receive treatment and the bacterial infection is transmitted to the baby, either during pregnancy or at birth. The result is not just another statistic in a health report. It is a public health failure that can reshape entire lives.
Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis, is shaped like a corkscrew. But its damage is anything but subtle. The infection in newborns can lead to a wide range of complications, many of which don’t show up immediately. A baby may appear perfectly healthy at birth. But over time (sometimes just weeks, other times years), symptoms can emerge. They may have problems with their liver and spleen. They may have delays in development, bone deformities, anemia (a shortage of healthy red blood cells), jaundice (a yellow tint to the skin and eyes), and sometimes irreversible harm to the brain and nerves.
