The Resurgence of Congenital Syphilis in NYS: A Look at the Past and Present to Change the Future

In this episode host Melinda Godfrey, a Nurse Practitioner at the University of Rochester, and Program Manager of the Congenital Syphilis Prevention Project, (part of the NYS CEI Sexual Health Center of Excellence) speaks with special guest Dr. Geoffrey Weinberg, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Dr. Weinberg is the Clinical Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Pediatric HIV Program. He is the co-attending at the Pediatric Primary Immune Deficiency Disorders Clinic at the University of Rochester Golisano Children’s Hospital, and consults with the NYSDOH AIDS Institute.

Dr. Weinberg gives us a brief history of syphilis (“The Great Pox”) all the way back to the 1400s. Through the years, medicine began to understand how the disease was transmitted, and in the 1940s, with the advent of penicillin, syphilis was all but eliminated. The disease resurfaced in the 1980s with other STDs and chronic drug use. Again, it was all but eliminated by the year 2000. Alarmingly, in 2021 there were 2700 known cases in newborns, and this has led to today’s discussion about what clinicians can do to help reduce the number of babies born with syphilis today, and preventing transmission in the future. Related Content:

• CDC - syphilis Informaion
• Clinical Education Initiative; Sexual Health Learning Pathways - Mastering syphilis
• Tampa M, Sarbu I, Matei C, Benea V, Georgescu SR. Brief history of syphilis. J Med Life. 2014 Mar 15;7(1):4-10. Epub 2014 Mar 25. PMID: 24653750; PMCID: PMC3956094. Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956094/
• CEI toll free line for NYS providers: 866-637-2342
• https://ceitraining.org/