The rate of syphilis among pregnant people, which soared between 2016 and 2022, continues to climb, the CDC reported today. A new report from the agency’s National Center for Health Statistics shows the maternal syphilis rate increased 28% from 2022 to 2024. That rise follows a 222% increase that occurred between 2016 and 2022. By the end of 2024, nearly 360 out of every 100,000 births were infected with the sexually transmitted infection. Increases were seen across most ethnic groups and all age groups.

The concern here relates to congenital syphilis, when a pregnant person passes the infection to a developing fetus. Congenital syphilis can cause a range of adverse outcomes including fetal or neonatal death, preterm birth, low birthweight, and brain and nerve disorders. Congenital syphilis cases have tripled in recent years, the CDC says, with nearly 4,000 cases reported in 2024. That’s the highest number in a single year since 1994. — Helen Branswell

one big number

1.63 million

That’s how many excess deaths there were among Black people compared to white people in the U.S. between 1999 and 2020. While the weathering hypothesis posits that increased levels of stress from discrimination lead to specific health consequences like inflammation, little data has directly connected stress and inflammation to mortality rates.

Now, a new study sheds some light on the theory. A study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open analyzed survey data and blood samples from more than 1,500 people in the St. Louis area and found that higher cumulative levels of stress across the lifespan and inflammation accounted for about half (49%) of the increased mortality risk among Black people in the study population. The findings align with the weathering hypothesis, the authors write, but more research is needed on additional factors that may contribute to the remaining proportion of excess deaths.

Teensy MA pay bump

The Trump administration on Monday announced plans to increase payment by less than 0.1% for Medicare Advantage plans, according to Bob.

That’s far lower than the 4%-6% pay hike analysts expected, and stocks for major insurers took a tumble in after-hours trading. Medicare officials also proposed to restrict further how insurers can code the illnesses of their Medicare Advantage enrollees.

Read more for why.

from AXIOS:

Medicare administrators yesterday proposed keeping federal payments to private Medicare plans roughly flat in 2027 and eliminating a practice that allows the insurers to add diagnoses after reviewing patients’ medical records. Why it matters: It was bad news for UnitedHealth Group, Humana, CVS Health and Elevance, among other carriers, who received a more than 5% payment bump this year. Shares of big insurers fell on the announcement. Driving the news: The average 2027 rate increase of .09% for Medicare Advantage plans — equivalent to $700 million — reflects growth rates of underlying health costs and efforts to ensure greater payment accuracy, CMS said in a notice. Diagnoses that are not reported or associated with documented treatment also would not factor in payments — a move that addresses coding practices that have received scrutiny and that the Wall Street Journal found added billions of extra payments from 2018 to 2021. Medicare has given insurers the option to add diagnoses to reflect conditions doctors may have missed. CMS administrator Mehmet Oz had pledged to go after overpayments to insurers during his confirmation hearing last year. The agency yesterday said it’s proposing updates to the Medicare prescription drug risk adjustment model that account for changes to the Part D benefit stemming from the Inflation Reduction Act. The payment proposal “is inadequate to offset acute pressure from the rising medical costs,” Evercore ISI analyst Elizabeth Anderson wrote in a note. The insurer group AHIP said the proposal could result in benefit cuts and higher costs for 35 million Medicare recipients when they renew their MA coverage. Docs offer their own childhood vax schedule By Adriel Bettelheim Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios The medical association representing pediatricians broke with the CDC on childhood immunizations yesterday, issuing revised recommendations against 18 diseases that contrast with the administration’s recently slimmed-down vaccine schedule. Why it matters: The American Academy of Pediatrics’ guidance is largely unchanged from 2025 but reflects the deepening rift between the federal government and medical establishment over inoculating kids. A dozen medical and health care organizations endorsed the group’s recommendations. What’s inside: The pediatricians’ schedule continues broad endorsements of vaccines targeting RSV, hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease, measles and pertussis. It also stresses the importance of measles vaccines in light of recent outbreaks, noting more than 2,200 measles cases and three associated deaths in the past year. What they’re saying: “It is important that we have a stable, trusted, evidence-based immunization schedule to follow,” said Pia Pannaraj, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases and a professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Diego. The other side: An HHS spokesperson said: “AAP is angry that CDC eliminated corporate influence in vaccine recommendations by reconstituting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.” More here