NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico has one of the highest rates of syphilis transmission in the United States; that's according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and now, the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) is raising the alarm. KRQE News 13 spoke with the state cabinet secretary of health about the distressing trend—and what they're now directing doctors to do. Story continues below New Mexico: Roswell residents pick up the pieces after record breaking rain and deadly flooding Community: ‘We don’t want our church to go away’: Small New Mexico community raising money to repair long-standing chapel News: City councilors, residents call out Albuquerque police shooting of man in handcuffs Trending: Two New Mexico hotels ranked among America’s most haunted "The increases have been dramatic. In the '90s, we were looking at syphilis eradication in the United States and then all of a sudden it's started to make a comeback, kind of flying under the radar for awhile," said Miranda Durham, chief medical officer for NMDOH. Syphilis is on the rise in New Mexico. "I think people just didn't catch fast enough that the cases were going up," Durham said, "In the last five years, the numbers have really exploded." So much so, the NMDOH is sounding the alarm to healthcare providers: "We've renewed a public health order that's been in place since 2020 that's oriented at trying to tamp down the amount of syphilis that's going on in the state," said Patrick Allen, cabinet secretary of NMDOH. The CDC ranks New Mexico as having the highest rate of congenital syphilis, meaning it is passed from mother to infant during birth; and the second highest rate of syphilis infection generally in the nation. "If left untreated, it can have lots of long-term health effects," Durham said. Last year there were 91 cases in New Mexico of congenital syphilis, leading to the death of 17 babies; 16 of which were in the womb. Congenital syphilis can cause serious birth defects, miscarriage, and infant death. "It's a tragedy because it's a hundred percent preventable," Allen said. This represents a 20% increase in congenital syphilis from 2022 to 2023, and nine times more than five years earlier. The trend is similarly on the rise nationwide. "That's what the public health order is really about is increasing significantly the amount of testing that we do," Allen said. The public health order directs medical professionals to do more testing of people between 18 and 50 for the disease within the next 12 months; more testing of pregnant people at multiple stages during the pregnancy; and testing of pregnant inmates. "The populations that seem to have the most concentration of this are people who are homeless or people who are in correctional settings," Allen said. He says while serious, syphilis is preventable. "This is something that you should get tested for. Everyone should get tested at least once for it and particularly people who are pregnant should get those three tests while they're pregnant to make sure that we don't have the 16 deaths that we had last year going forward," Allen said. The public health order went into effect Thursday and lasts for one year.