It was just a routine checkup or so she thought. One woman’s syphilis scare mirrors thousands of others amid a syphilis outbreak in the U.S., with Houston at the epicenter.
Syphilis has been on the rise in the US for more than two decades. From 2017 to 2021, the number of cases shot up 75% (to 176,713), according to the CDC. Houston seems to be at the epicenter.