Brochures at the University of Alaska Anchorage Student Health and Counseling Center, seen on July 17, 2026, provide information on syphilis and other sexually transmitted infections. Cases of syphilis infections among newborns have been on the rise in Alaska and nationally. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
More Alaska babies were born infected with syphilis last year than in any recent year, state health officials reported. It is a trend that comes as the state continues to have high rates of the sexually transmitted disease.
In 2025, 14 Alaska newborns had congenital syphilis, cases in which infections are transmitted to babies by their mothers, according to a bulletin issued on July 15 by the Alaska Division of Public Health’s epidemiology section.
That compares to seven cases the previous year and 10 cases in 2023 for a condition that was once extremely rare in Alaska. In contrast to 2025, there were two cases from 2011 to 2013, and in some years prior to 2020 there were no reported cases, according to state health officials.
Congenital syphilis can have grave consequences, including premature births; bone deformities; developmental delays; blindness, deafness or other brain or nerve problems; and sometimes death.
Congenital syphilis is entirely preventable if pregnant women’s infections are detected and treated in a timely fashion, said Tamara Davis, manager of the Division of Public Health’s program for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
To avoid passing on the infection, pregnant women must be treated at least 30 days before giving birth, Davis said.
“Unfortunately, a lot of these patients just show up way too late,” she said.
For adults and adolescents, syphilis case numbers increased in 2025, continuing a recent pattern.
There were 280 recorded cases of primary or secondary syphilis — defined as infections in the earlier stages, generally in weeks or months, when the infection is most contagious — and 223 recorded longer-term cases or cases of unknown duration. That represents a 14% increase in primary or secondary cases since 2023 and a 51% increase in longer-term cases since 2023, according to statistics reported in the bulletin.
There are some common threads in recent years’ non-congenital syphilis statistics.
Most cases were in Anchorage and the nearby Matanuska-Susitna Borough, as was the situation in the prior two years. Three-quarters of the 2025 adult and adolescent cases were in that geographic area, according to the bulletin.
The majority of the cases were among men, but not overwhelmingly so; in 2025, 53% of the cases were among male patients.
Housing insecurity and substance abuse were factors among many patients. In 2025, 30% of the adult and adolescent patients reported that they lacked secure housing, and about fifth of the 2025 syphilis patients reported engaging in substance abuse.
For the congenital syphilis cases, many of the mothers received little or no prenatal care, Davis said.
State public health officials have teams with the Anchorage Department of Health and other partners to reach at-risk Alaskans, especially pregnant women at risk of passing infections to their babies, she said. Efforts include providing transportation to testing and treatment sites, she said.
“We’re doing what we can,” she said. “Of course, one case is too many”
Alaska has generally posted some of the nation’s highest rates of sexually transmitted disease, according to statistics kept by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, the most recent year for which state-by-state data is available, Alaska had the 11th highest rate of syphilis, 15th highest rate of congenital syphilis, third highest rate of chlamydia and highest rate of gonorrhea, according to the CDC.
Nationally, congenital syphilis cases have increased dramatically over the past decade, the CDC reported. In 2024, the most recent year of available data, there were nearly 4,000 cases reported nationwide, compared to 495 cases reported in 2015, according to the CDC.
Non-congenital syphilis cases have started to decline nationally after several years of increases, according to the CDC. Primary and secondary cases declined by 22% in 2024 from 2023 levels, and it was the second consecutive year of decreases, the CDC said.
