--- title: Syphilis Rates In Babies Are At a 20-Year High, CDC Says description: CDC data shows that rates of congenital syphilis are way up. Twice as many babies were born with syphilis in 2017 as in 2013. canonical: https://time.com/5406134/congenital-syphilis-cdc/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-25T19:31:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:32:30.519Z article:section: Health og:title: Syphilis Rates In Babies Are At a 20-Year High, CDC Says og:description: Twice as many newborns had syphilis in 2017 as in 2013 og:url: https://time.com/5406134/congenital-syphilis-cdc/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b913c48943f40cc/6988cc0dfb4eac2c45891d8f/time-health-stock-pregnancy-13.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME Health stock pregnancy pregnant og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Syphilis Rates In Babies Are At a 20-Year High, CDC Says twitter:description: Twice as many newborns had syphilis in 2017 as in 2013 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b913c48943f40cc/6988cc0dfb4eac2c45891d8f/time-health-stock-pregnancy-13.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Syphilis Rates In Babies Are At a 20-Year High, CDC Says  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 25, 2018 7:31 PM UTC  Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Sep 25, 2018 7:31 PM UTC The number of babies born with syphilis in the U.S. more than doubled between 2013 and 2017, according to new federal data. Rates of congenital syphilis, which a mother passes to her baby during pregnancy or delivery, rose by more than 150% between 2013 and 2017, according to new [data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention](https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats17/2017-STD-Surveillance-Report%5FCDC-clearance-9.10.18.pdf) (CDC). A total of 918 babies were born with syphilis in 2017, the report says. That’s up from 362 in 2013 and is the highest number in 20 years. Most of these cases were clustered in Western and Southern states, with 281 in California alone. A woman with syphilis can be treated with antibiotics during pregnancy, but if the disease goes untreated, it can easily spread from mother to baby. While congenital syphilis can also be treated with antibiotics, it can result in permanent physical and mental health problems for an infant, and in some cases, it can even be fatal. The severity of the disease, as well as its increasing prevalence, underscores the importance of regular syphilis testing for pregnant women, the CDC says — especially given that rates of sexually transmitted diseases are [at an all-time high](http://time.com/5381625/std-rates-funding/) in the U.S. “Newborns are now paying the price for our nation’s growing STD crisis. That we have any cases of syphilis among newborns, let alone an increasing number, is a failure of the health care system,” said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, in a statement. “It is also a symptom of the larger STD crisis in the U.S. and a sign of a public health system in urgent need of support.” Last month, the CDC released preliminary data showing that STD rates broke records in 2017 for the fourth year in a row. Nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were diagnosed in 2017, according to the CDC — about 200,000 more STDs than were diagnosed in 2016. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5406134/congenital-syphilis-cdc/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5406134/congenital-syphilis-cdc/"},"headline":"Syphilis Rates In Babies Are At a 20-Year High, CDC Says","datePublished":"2018-09-25T19:31:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:32:30.519Z","description":"Twice as many newborns had syphilis in 2017 as in 2013","url":"https://time.com/5406134/congenital-syphilis-cdc/","keywords":["Sex/Relationships","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b913c48943f40cc/6988cc0dfb4eac2c45891d8f/time-health-stock-pregnancy-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b913c48943f40cc/6988cc0dfb4eac2c45891d8f/time-health-stock-pregnancy-13.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIME Health stock pregnancy pregnant","caption":"","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/sexrelationships/","name":"Sex/Relationships"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5406134/congenital-syphilis-cdc/","name":"Syphilis Rates In Babies Are At a 20-Year High, CDC Says"}}]}] ```