CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Health District said it's continuing to see large numbers of people with syphilis.
The trend follows what other counties and cities across the state are experiencing. The district is hoping a new program directed at pregnant women with syphilis will help keep the mom's from passing it to their babies.
That's because there's a 40 percent death rate among newborns with syphilis.
In 2022, Nueces County reported 460 cases of syphilis and Public Health Director Fauzia Khan said the district wants to focus on a new intervention program they have, which targets women who have syphilis and are pregnant.
Syphilis cases are on the rise across the country. Here in the Lone Star State the number of cases each year now stands at around 26,000. That's double what it was five years ago. So, what happened to fuel the rise?
"There are risk factors. Unprotected sex is one of them. Lack of education and information is another one. Also, multiple partners, they are all risk factors," she said.
While syphilis is a curable disease, the health department has been focusing its attention on pregnant women with syphilis. It's a new intervention program, which so far this year, has had field nurses visit 46 of those women across Nueces County. That's because congenital syphilis in newborns has about a 40 percent death rate. If treatment can be given at least a month before birth that number drops somewhere below five percent.
"In this program this new intervention, a nurse, working in the field with pregnant moms with syphilis at their homes, treats them there, because we do not want transmission of syphilis to the infant," she said.
The health department also says it has expanded its contact tracing efforts and increased its education efforts plus going back and treating those folks who have had syphilis before, all in an effort to try to slow down the progress of this disease.
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