AMNA NAWAZ: The last decade has brought an alarming rise in the number of babies born in the U.S. with syphilis.

New CDC data showed more than 3,700 babies born with the disease in 2022.

That's 10 times the number born in 2012.

To explain why we're seeing that increase and what can be done to reverse the trend, we're joined by Dr. John Vanchiere, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at LSU Health in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Doctor, welcome.

So, let's start with what is driving that increase.

What's behind that number -- those numbers?

DR. JOHN VANCHIERE, LSU Health Shreveport: So, when we see syphilis in babies, which we call congenital syphilis, that's an indicator of the amount of syphilis that's in the community and that it's an indicator.

It's like a canary in a coal mine.

When you see babies with syphilis, it means there are lots of adults with syphilis.

And that's -- we have known that for decades.

AMNA NAWAZ: Just to hit this home, because many people may not be familiar, what is the potential harm to babies who do have congenital syphilis?

(CROSSTALK) DR. JOHN VANCHIERE: Yes, the -- sort of the good news of this is that most babies with congenital syphilis have very mild or no symptoms at all and no long-term manifestations.

Babies can be born prematurely because mom has syphilis during pregnancy.

Some babies actually die in utero before they're born because of syphilis.

So, we call that stillbirth.

And babies that are born with symptoms of syphilis have a spectrum from mild to moderate and severe, can include neurologic damage, respiratory damage as well, and long-term complications thereof.

AMNA NAWAZ: And the amount of syphilis in the community, as you have mentioned, this is a reflection of what we're seeing in babies.

So, why the dramatic increase there?

Put us in -- put that into context for us.

DR. JOHN VANCHIERE: Yes.

We have been watching this trend for several decades now.

Syphilis case counts in the United States are higher than they have been for about two decades, almost three.

And what that means is, in adult cases, there are 175,000 cases a year or more.

And these are really spillover to babies who can't fight the disease.

And babies get infected, obviously, because their moms get syphilis.

And if we treat mom during pregnancy, if we can diagnose it during pregnancy and treat, most of those babies are protected and safe and don't have any complications.

Part of what we're focusing on with this new data is that there's a large number that are preventable; 90 percent, by estimate, are preventable cases of babies infected with syphilis.

AMNA NAWAZ: So, if somebody... DR. JOHN VANCHIERE: And better testing... AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

If so many are preventable, and we do have tests, and there is treatment, why isn't it working?

DR. JOHN VANCHIERE: There are a lot of reasons.

Some moms don't start into pregnancy care until very late or show up at the hospital ready to deliver.

So that's a piece of it.

In some places -- in Louisiana, we test three times during pregnancy for women.

It's recommended.

And they can opt out.

But other places don't test as much as we do here.

They might only test once or twice during pregnancy.

There's a lot of judgment by the physician about, well, my patients are not at risk for whatever reason, and they may not test, when they really should be testing.

So there are a lot of complex factors involved here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Just to underscore, we do see some of the same racial disparities here that we see with other maternal health issues, other more broad health issues.

If you take a look at the numbers, CDC figures find that Hispanic mothers are two times more likely than white mothers to have newborn syphilis, Black mothers four times more likely, American Indian and Alaskan native mothers nine times more likely.

Doctor, tell us how this is showing up in your community.

What are you seeing in Louisiana?

DR. JOHN VANCHIERE: Where we are in Northwest Louisiana, we evaluate two to three babies a week for possible congenital syphilis.

And that is, again, largely because moms may have early diagnosis or inadequate treatment, treatment was started too late in pregnancy.

And most of those babies follow them into that possible category, but we also have some in that probable category.

Right now, we have three babies in our hospital with congenital syphilis, two with no symptoms and one with symptoms.

And this has been the routine for us for more than a decade in our area.

AMNA NAWAZ: So the big question is, what does it take to reverse this trend?

How do we do that?

DR. JOHN VANCHIERE: So it's going to take a national political will to do something about STIs.

They are a scourge in our communities.

And we need to just admit that our system of health in the United States is failing to do its job to curb STIs, sexually transmitted infections, broadly, including syphilis.

And so what we really need to think about is, how does our military get funded and think about funding public health the same way, have the best techniques, the best technologies in advance before threats are on our borders, like COVID.

And I was intimately involved in the COVID pandemic, and we're no better prepared now than we were before the COVID pandemic to deal with threats.

This is an endemic threat, not a pandemic threat.

And it's not going to go away unless we do something different.

AMNA NAWAZ: That is Dr. John Vanchiere, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at LSU Health in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Doctor, thank you.

We appreciate your time.

DR. JOHN VANCHIERE: Thank you, Amna.