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Congenital syphilis is associated with high healthcare costs and significant morbidity and mortality (stillbirths), but it is a preventable disease. The rate of congenital syphilis parallels that of primary and secondary syphilis in women of childbearing age. In the early 1990s, rates in both infants and women began to decline and continued to decline through 2004. Now the CDC reports that rates of congenital syphilis started to rise again in 2005: The rate increased 23% in 2005–2008, from 8.2 to 10.1 cases per 100,000 live births. Rates increased primarily in the South and among infants of black mothers.
To examine recent trends in seroprevalence of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2), the CDC analyzed serologic tests of persons aged 14–49 …