July 21, 2017 -- Chantal, a 27-year-old from Fresno County, CA, had no symptoms when she tested positive for syphilis at 7 months pregnant.

By the time she was treated, it was too late for her son.

Her baby -- born at 8 pounds, 13 ounces in mid-March -- is blind in one eye and may have a host of other health problems associated with congenital syphilis.

“I have seen pictures of my baby’s eyes, and the retina in the right eye looks purple,” said Chantal. “The left eye looks rotten.”

Syphilis, an old scourge that was nearly wiped out in the United States, is now back -- and at alarming rates among newborns in all regions of the country.

“It’s very difficult to see these babies born with significant problems from a disease that was discovered almost 500 years ago,” said M. Nael Mhaissen, MD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Valley Children’s Hospital who treated Chantal and her son.