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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion

Reduce congenital syphilis — STI‑04 Data Methodology and Measurement

On this page:  About the National Data  |  Methodology  |  History

About the National Data

Data

Data Source:  National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), CDC/CSELS

Baseline: 50.2 cases of congenital syphilis per 100,000 live births were reported in 2019

Target: 33.9 per 100,000

Numerator
Number of reported cases of congenital syphilis that were born in the year of interest.
Denominator
Number of live births.
Target-setting method
Maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies, or laws
Target-setting method justification
The target was selected to align with the 2030 target presented in the STI National Strategic Plan (STI Plan) for the indicator "Reduce rates of congenital syphilis." The STI Plan Indicators subcommittee, in consultation with HHS leadership, set quantitative targets to reduce the rising rates of STIs as a public health threat by 2030. The approach to setting the annual target for all indicators that monitor disease rates (e.g., rates of congenital syphilis) accounted for initial ramping up efforts, which would be slower. Thus, decreases in STI rates are expected to become more pronounced as the plan is implemented.

Methodology

Methodology notes

Rates of reported congenital syphilis are measured using nationally notifiable STD surveillance data, collected and compiled from reports sent by the STD control programs and health departments in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

History

Comparable HP2020 objective
Retained, which includes core objectives that are continuing from Healthy People 2020 with no change in measurement.
Revision History
  • Revised. 

    The baseline was updated from 2017 to 2019 and the target was revised from percent improvement to maintain consistency with national programs, regulations, policies or laws in order to align the objective with the STI National Strategic Plan (STI Plan) in 2021.
  • Revised. 

    In 2024, the original baseline was revised from 48.5 to 50.2 percent due to updates to the numerators and denominators used in rate calculations. There is some lag in reporting new STI cases and the population estimates used in rate calculations. Therefore, the rates are re-adjusted annually once the final case counts and population values are available. In some cases, the final values may vary slightly from those initially reported.