JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) – Medical experts say Mississippi has some of the highest STD rates in the country.

The STD rate, depending on your source, is around 1,200 per 100,000 Mississippian, or 1 per every 100.

The state has long been plagued by high rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and HIV.

In years prior, Hinds County had the dishonor of having the highest STD rate of any county in the country.

However, the state’s current boom of congenital syphilis, which follows a nationwide trend, has the medical community now labeling it an epidemic.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, congenital syphilis occurs when syphilis passes to babies during pregnancy, and it can cause serious health problems without treatment.

A 2023 report from the CDC also has Mississippi ranked third in the country for reported cases of primary and secondary syphilis. In that same report, Mississippi ranked fifth for gonorrhea and second for chlamydia.

Doctors say syphilis, like other sexually transmitted diseases, is spread through bacteria upon contact with infected fluids, something that usually happens through acts of sex.

With most STDs, the symptoms can make themselves known in several ways, but what makes syphilis different is that it can be harder to detect, with symptoms being minor or nothing at all.

Dr. Kayla Stover, professor and vice chair of pharmacy practice at the University of Mississippi, said if syphilis is left untreated, it could lie undetected in the body for years.

“Unless you are testing for syphilis, you might not know it’s there,” she said.

Deja Abdul-Haqq, the director of My Brother’s Keeper, a local nonprofit focusing on public health, said the team has been seeing a spike in syphilis cases since the COVID-19 pandemic.

As for the reason for the spike, she said: “To break it down really simple: condomless sex.”

Abdul-Haqq said there is a lack of information regarding condom use in preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

In Mississippi schools, sex-education classes cannot include instruction and demonstrations on how to use a condom.

Stover echoed some of Abdul-Haqq’s concerns, saying that Mississippi’s sex education has not been as progressive as other states.

According to recent data, Black men in Mississippi have higher rates of syphilis than others. A 2019 report found that of the 690 cases of primary and secondary syphilis that year, 338 were in Black men.

The second-highest rate was found in Black women.

“The information regarding the solution to these issues usually gets to the Black communities late,” Abdul-Haqq said. “So, it’s not so much the individual, it’s the environment that does not promote access to all of these prevention methods.”

Throughout the years, billboard campaigns arose in the state and across the country to raise awareness about STDs.

While well-intentioned, Abdul-Haqq said these billboard campaigns may not be doing enough for those who may need the information the most.

“Culturally and aesthetically, it doesn’t engage the Black community, and the message is too vague,” she said. “We have to hit people with data.”

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