Syphilis cases in U.S. rise to 70-year high, up 80% from 2018 to 2022

The number of cases of syphilis in the U.S. is at a 70-year high, the Department of Health and Human Services is warning. 

The spread of the bacterial infection, which HHS termed a “slow surging epidemic,” involved an 80% jump in the number of cases between 2018 and 2022, when 207,255 total cases of syphilis were reported nationwide. The disease is usually transmitted through sexual contact.

In babies, there were more than 3,700 cases of congenital syphilis, more than ten times the amount of infant syphilis cases in 2012, HHS said Tuesday.

There were roughly 30,000 more cases of syphilis in 2022 than there were in 2021, when 176,733 cases were reported nationwide, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

South Dakota has the highest rate of total syphilis infections, at 214 cases per 100,000 people, followed by D.C. at 189 cases per 100,000 people, according to CDC data.

The amount of syphilis cases is the highest America has seen since 1950, when there were 217,558 cases reported nationwide, according to ABC News. 

Untreated, syphilis can damage the heart and brain and cause victims to go blind, deaf, and become paralyzed.

The disease had reached record lows 30 years ago, after decades of increasing antibiotic use.

“In the United States, syphilis was close to elimination in the 1990s, so we know it’s possible to reverse this epidemic,” said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. “I have hope for innovative prevention tools – such as a pill after sex that prevents STIs, and better tests for syphilis – but they will only be successful if they reach the people who will benefit.”