2023-07-13 19:16:48
US doctors despair
Killing Fast: Syphilis in Infants Becomes an Epidemic
13.07.2023, 21:16 | Reading time: 4 minutes
A woman holds a baby’s hand.
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/Symbolbild
Washington Syphilis continues to spread in the United States. And it hits those hardest who are least able to help it: newborns.
Thirty years following the global AIDS pandemic, another sexually transmitted disease is on the rise in the US: Syphilismore precisely “congenital” or “congenital syphilis”, which is born to newborns who have been infected in the womb.
Doctors are frustrated. They consider most diseases to be preventable – through timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment of the infection, which in adults is most common through unprotected people intercourse is transferred. However, many people – including expectant mothers – overlook the need for early detection because there are often no symptoms that would indicate an infection.
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Syphilis in children: Symptoms last a lifetime
Sidney J. is six years old today. The happy girl with blond curls and a big grin would hardly have survived her birth in late summer 2016. She might hardly breathe because her lungs had filled with mucus. When doctors diagnosed a syphilisInfection determined, they gave the infant a maximum of four weeks. Once diagnosed, she was promptly transferred to a neonatal intensive care unit and treated intravenously with antibiotics for two weeks. Also interesting: Contraception is also a matter for men – these methods exist
The young girl, who now lives the normal life of a first-grader who has just started school, does not understand exactly what is bothering her. However, she is always in pain. Sidney suffers from Sore throat, fever, swollen lymph nodes and extreme tiredness, which are unusual for an otherwise lively child her age. Doctors have also warned her parents that their offspring can expect to have symptoms throughout their life Infection might return and it cannot be ruled out that the disease will affect their nerves or vision in adulthood.
As annoying as the symptoms are, Sidney is still lucky. Many babies born with “congenital syphilis” only live a few weeks. As the US federal health authority National Institutes of Health (NIH) states, the number of children born with the infection has increased sevenfold in the past ten years – and the trend is still rising.
Also read: Monkey Pox – An infected person’s nose begins to rot
This in turn brings Dr. Robert McDonald, NIH director of STDs, to despair. “The rising number of cases is really annoying, because if it’s timely Treatment it should never have happened to these poor children,” says McDonald. “It’s just a matter of making pregnant women aware of the necessary tests at an early stage and reacting accordingly in the event of an infection”.
A statutory one Syphilis-Screening for pregnant women, which exists in Germany, does not exist in all states of the USA. However, if the screening is carried out at least 30 days before delivery and the mother is treated with penicillin – if positive – “then the probability that the mother transmits the carrier bacterium Treponema pallidum to her baby drops by 98 percent,” says McDonald. Otherwise there is a risk of premature birth or even stillbirth, and late damage is also possible, emphasizes the doctor.
Sexually transmitted diseases continue to spread due to a lack of education
Most diseases are found in the poorer southern states USA discovered where patient care often leaves a lot to be desired. In Mississippi alone, the number of newborns with syphilis skyrocketed by 3,300 percent and in Oklahoma by 3,000 percent between 2016 and 2021. In several other states, infections have increased more than tenfold over the same period.
Experts call the reasons for this a lack of information for pregnant women Women. However, it is also problematic that government health programs do not do enough to prevent and treat the disease venereal disease invested.
As a study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) revealed, the funds that have been poured into the Research and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases flows have fallen by 40 percent. During the corona pandemic, public funds that were previously used to fight syphilis were also reallocated to the development of vaccines and drugs once morest the corona virus.
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