Alarming surge in medieval disease in babies as health system dubbed a failure

[Warpy]

7. Antibiotics made public health departments complacent

Cheap and dirty penicillin kills syphilis. The problem is that women aren't being tested. Another problem is what happens to her relationship with the father of the child since there is no way of determining who infected whom.

Of course, that means little prenatal care and this country doesn't think the lack of it is any sort of a problem. Men know where to stick it in but once they roll over and go to sleep. it's all her fault, her problem, and if she's poor, it sucks to be her..

Some sort of outreach has got to happen. Having children born with syp0hilis when it can be detected early and cured is simply unacceptable.

Here's the CDC fact sheet for congenital syphilis: https://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/stdfact-congenital-syphilis.htm It is devastating to the child's health and if it is untreated, will probably result in death before puberty.

ETA: One of the first clues that syphilis didn't originate in the New World was the discovery of the skeletons of two children in Aplontis, a suburb of Pompeii that was also destroyed by the 79 CE eruption. Both childrens' skeletons showed the unmistakable damage caused by congenital syphilis.

Archaeologists had missed syphilis in Europe because they'd been looking at the wrong population, adults generally dying before the signs of tertiary syphilis showed un on their bones. They should have been looking at the kiddies.