Alaska congenital syphilis cases hit a record in 2025

Congenital syphilis — passed to a baby during pregnancy or birth — is preventable with a simple test and a penicillin shot. Alaska recorded 14 cases in 2025, the most ever, more than double the six cases in 2024.

The toll has fallen heavily on Alaska Native families, whose infants accounted for nearly two-thirds of the cases — nine of the 14. Most were in Anchorage. And the state has been struggling to make sure patients finish treatment: the share of syphilis patients who completed it slipped last year, and clinics have at times run short of the standard medication.

The cases keep tracing back to gaps in prenatal care. A state review of the 2023 cases found every one of them occurred in infants "born to women who experienced complex and substantial barriers to prenatal care" — the kind of gap that a single course of penicillin during pregnancy is meant to close.

The state recommends testing pregnant women three times — at diagnosis, in the third trimester, and at delivery — and has expanded screening in other settings, including opt-out testing at intake in state correctional facilities. The latest case counts are provisional.