Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges.

If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhh.edu.

That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes.

This is Lindsay Smith Rogers, and today the topic is syphilis.

In 1999, we were getting close to eliminating the sexually transmitted infection,

which can be devastating if not identified and treated early on. In recent years, however,

syphilis rates rose in the U.S. and have climbed to all-time highs. Stephanie Desmond talks to

Dr. Khalil Ganim about how we got here and what can be done.

Let's listen.

Khalil Ghanim, thanks so much for joining me.

Thank you so much for inviting me to join you.

So today the topic is syphilis.

I understand that the syphilis rate is growing at an alarming pace on the United States. And I want

you to talk about sort of what that looks like. And you could also remind folks what syphilis is.

Sure. So I'll start with the second part of the question. What is syphilis? And syphilis is,

for the most part, a sexually transmitted infection,

and it affects both men and women. This infection is particularly problematic if it's not treated,

because this infection can spread throughout the body within hours to days after exposure. And it can lead to

serious complications, such as neurological complications, eye complications, inner ear complications. And in

pregnant patients, it can lead to early termination of pregnancy, or if it doesn't lead to early

termination of pregnancy, it can lead to infections in the infants when they're born, or a few years

...