Thought about congenital syphilis lately? Our legislators should. The latest data show the number of babies born in Mississippi with congenital syphilis rose by nearly 80%. From 2016 to 2022 the rate increased a thousand percent.
This quiet epidemic is rife with miscarriages, stillbirths, and babies with deformed bones, severe anemia, enlarged liver and spleen, jaundice, blindness, deafness, and meningitis.
“We have a 40% fatal disease that's almost entirely cured by a single shot of penicillin,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs told Mississippi Public Broadcasting last month. “That speaks to a system issue,” said the former state health officer, now dean of the John D. Bower School of Population Health at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.
“We've got to do a better job of getting moms into prenatal care and getting them tested and treated because it's really a simple solution.”
Not so simple in Mississippi.
While Mississippi took steps last year to require syphilis testing for pregnant people in their first trimester, third trimester, and at delivery, pregnant people must show up for the program to work.
“We have a lot of delayed prenatal care in a lot of counties,” said Dr. Dobbs, explaining that a majority of women do not get prenatal care in their first trimester. He pointed to the high cost of penicillin and the lack of healthcare infrastructure and investment as likely reasons behind Mississippi’s increased numbers.
It’s just not that easy for many women to get seen and tested.
“Mississippi doesn’t have the medical workforce to address a wide range of poor health outcomes,” Dr. Daniel Edney, the current state health officer told the Associated Press. In some rural areas there are about 2,000 individuals per primary care physician. And all or part of our 82 counties are deemed medically underserved. County health departments are poorly staffed – “clinical services may not be available on all days” says the MSDH website.
Way back in 2012 the MEC’s Blueprint Mississippi issued a report entitled “Health Care: An Economic Driver.” In calling for a major expansion of healthcare activities, the report said, “Attempting to grow a statewide health cluster is not only bold and aggressive, but also unprecedented….To grow health care in Mississippi will require investment in human and physical infrastructure.”
Adequate funding of our county health departments and expanding Medicaid would have helped this vision gain traction, strengthened our health care infrastructure, and saved many children’s lives.
Instead, unprecedented underinvestment has left Mississippi health care an economic misadventure and too many babies at risk.
“Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward” – Psalm 127:3.
Bill Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson. He is the author of A Republican’s Lament: Mississippi Needs Good Government Conservatives.
