According to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), syphilis cases increased 17 percent in the past year and 80 percent in the past five years.

With Congress set to cut funding for workers who fight sexually transmitted infections, experts warn the record-setting epidemic isn’t likely to abate. 

Syphilis was nearly eradicated in the 1990s in the U.S, but it’s come roaring back largely due to years of underfunding public health, but also because of increasing rates of substance use and the mental health crisis.  

The CDC reported 207,255 total syphilis cases across nearly every demographic group and region in 2022, including newborns. In November, health officials reported a concerning rise in congenital syphilis — when an untreated infection in a parent is passed to an infant during birth. 

It’s a disease that impacts red and blue states alike — Texas, California, Arizona, Florida and Louisiana represented 57 percent of all reported congenital syphilis cases in 2022.

Health departments are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and mpox outbreak, and Congress is poised to claw back $400 million in public health workforce funds as part of the debt ceiling agreement between President Biden and congressional leaders.  

The National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD) found states would need to lay off about 800 disease intervention specialists if Congress doesn’t stop the cuts from taking effect.  

“What HHS says we need to do, what CDC says we need to do … rapid testing, reaching out to people in alternative settings and in places like prisons, those are all absolutely correct. But communities can’t follow through on that advice without funding and people to do it,” said NCSD spokeswoman Elizabeth Finley.