Can One Be Born with An STD?

STD is the infections that are outcomes of sexual transmission from an infected person to the partner. It can cause serious health problems when not treated properly or left untreated. Those who are not indulged in sexual activities can also catch STD. The disease can be transmitted from an infected pregnant woman to its child during birth. So, anyone can be born with an STD in such cases.

Can One Be Born with An STD?

Can One Be Born with An STD?

Yes, you can be born with an STD. this can happen in the case; you are born to an STD infected mother. If a pregnant woman contracts STD during or just before pregnancy, the newborn infant can also catch the infection during the delivery process through the infected birth canal. Some STDs that are contracted to the baby during birth are chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, and cytomegalovirus. STDs such as syphilis, HIV, and CMV can pass on to the unborn baby during pregnancy.

What Are The Symptoms That Develop If You Are Born With an STD?

STDs can result in serious health hazards to the baby. Some symptoms can be detected at birth and some manifest its symptoms after months or years later. These infections can be fatal for the newborn baby; can cause long-lasting and permanent issues to health and development of the baby.

Chlamydia: Chlamydia may cause infection of eye and pneumonia to the infant born to the infected mother.

Gonorrhea: Babies born to gonorrheal infected mother may develop infections of the eye that can cause blindness. They can also get infections in the joints and blood that can lead serious problems to baby’s health.

Syphilis: When Syphilis is contracted by the newborn baby, it results in serious and fatal infections in the baby. The symptoms may appear after few weeks of exposure to the infection. Syphilis babies develop serious affections in internal organs such as skin, eyes, ears, teeth, heart, brain, and bones. The affected baby can develop blindness, deafness and seizure disorders due to syphilis.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus/HIV/AIDS: AIDS is the disease caused by virus HIV that can hamper immunity mechanism of the body destroying the cells meant for defense against diseases. It can infect baby during pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding. HIV hampers the baby’s natural physical growth, and immunity to fight against childhood infections such as common cold and ear infections. HIV can also cause brain diseases that may result in seizures and difficulty in walking in the affected child.

Hepatitis B: Hepatitis B is the serious viral infection of the liver. The infected newborns develop the chronic liver disease and even liver cancer that can be life-threatening.

Hepatitis C: Hepatitis C is a viral infection that affects the liver. If you are born with Hepatitis C, your health must be monitored regularly. One out of four children born with hepatitis C, will develop immunity against the virus and other three can be carriers of the disease.

Herpes: If the newborn baby has caught herpes from the infected mother during birth, the infection may cause affections of skin, eye, mouth, central nervous system, and other vital organs, leading to the organ failure and even death.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV): If a newborn baby contracts HPV, it does not affect the baby in its original form. Instead, the baby can get a noncancerous growth in the throat, named as laryngeal papillomatosis. HPV affected female child may develop cancer in cervix years after the first infection.

Conclusion

Prenatal care has been advanced to screen out STD during pregnancy, and early treatment is recommended for both expectant mother and sexual intimate to check infection to pass on to the infant. Early management of the disease will protect the unborn infant from the disease to a great extent.

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Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:October 3, 2018

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