Congenital syphilis rates rising. After 14 years of decline, from 1990 to 2004, the rates of congenital syphilis in infants began rising, from 8.2 per 100,000 live births in 2005 to 10.1 per 100,000 live births in 2008, an increase of 23%, which corresponded to a 38% increase in syphilis among young women from 2004 to 2007. These results are from national surveillance data published in the April 16 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The vast majority of infants with congenital syphilis were black (50%) and Hispanic (31%), and a large proportion of the increase occurred in the South. Among 431 congenital syphilis cases reported in 2008, nearly 30% of the infants' mothers didn't receive prenatal care.