According to, a U. S. Government report that was released on Thursday, more U. S. babies are being born with syphilis, several of them to women in the South who make use of crack cocaine and work in the sex trade.

The team, at the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the disturbing tendency overturns a 14-year drop and reveals that the infection, already picking up amongst gay and bisexual men, is deteriorating in the heterosexual community.

If a woman, during pregnancy gets infected with syphilis, her baby might be born dead, deaf, with other nerve injury or bone deformities. However, antibiotic treatment at least a month prior to birth can avoid that.

CDC researchers examined the cases of congenital syphilis, a disease, which must be reported by the doctors to State Health Departments.

The CDC team wrote in the agency's weekly report on death and disease that after waning for 14 years, the congenital syphilis rate amid infants aged below 1 year rose 23%, from 8.2 cases per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 10.1 in
2008.

The report added "Recent increases in ... syphilis among black women in the south have been linked to crack cocaine use and commercial sex work".

Caused by the Treponema pallidum bacteria, syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease. It does not show symptoms for years and can thus be passed on by people who are oblivious that they are infected.