Three pieces are up at blackhealth.org, and read together they describe the same problem from three angles: a number or a policy exists, and it still does not reach the Black families it is supposed to protect. The CDC logged 3,941 congenital syphilis cases in 2024, the twelfth straight annual increase, and Black birth parents carry roughly twice their share. The FDA has approved the first pill for postpartum depression, and the trial that won the approval never reported how many Black mothers were in it. Maryland just capped the price of Ozempic, and the cap stops at the edge of Medicaid, where close to a third of the state's enrollees are Black. Each one is real. Each one leaves a Black reader standing in the gap between what the policy says and who it actually reaches.
1. Congenital syphilis is at a record. Black infants carry twice the share.
The CDC counted 3,941 cases of congenital syphilis in 2024, the twelfth consecutive annual increase (CDC STI Surveillance 2024 Provisional, published September 24, 2025). A baby gets congenital syphilis when a pregnant parent's infection goes untreated, and nearly every case is preventable with a timely test and a course of penicillin. In 2022, non-Hispanic Black birth parents accounted for 29.8 percent of cases while making up 13.9 percent of US live births, a roughly two-fold overrepresentation (McDonald et al., MMWR 2023, PMID 37971936). The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued a Grade A recommendation on May 13, 2025, for early, universal syphilis screening in pregnancy. The piece names the one question to put to a provider at a first prenatal visit: was a syphilis test ordered.
2. The first pill for postpartum depression is here. Black mothers are least likely to reach it.
Zuranolone, sold as Zurzuvae, became the first oral drug labeled specifically for postpartum depression when the FDA approved it on August 4, 2023. The catch sits in the evidence and the formulary. The SKYLARK registration trial did not report the race composition of its cohort, so there is no race-stratified efficacy or safety data for Black women. And the condition it treats falls hardest where access is thinnest. A 2017 South Bronx cohort found 24 percent of Black mothers screened positive for postpartum depression, roughly double the rate in white women (Doe et al., PMID 28025705). An earlier New Jersey Medicaid cohort of 29,601 mothers found 4 percent of Black women initiated postpartum mental-health care, against 9 percent of white women (Kozhimannil et al., PMID 21632730). The piece walks the access gap a new prescription does not close on its own.
3. Maryland capped Ozempic at $274. Most Black Marylanders sit outside the cap.
The Maryland Prescription Drug Affordability Board voted in May to cap Ozempic at $274 for a 30-day supply, effective January 2027, the first state upper payment limit on a GLP-1, anchored to the Medicare Maximum Fair Price under the federal drug-price-negotiation program. The cap binds state and local government employee health plans, projected at $5.8 million in annual savings. It does not bind Medicaid, commercial coverage, or the uninsured. Maryland Medicaid is roughly 30 percent Black, and the commercial market and the uninsured sit further outside the scope. The piece walks the gap between what the statute permits and what the May determination actually reaches.
Resources we trust
Our verified provider directory is still in build-out, so we are pointing you to three established, free resources whose work maps to the reporting above:
- KFF (kff.org) publishes the marketplace and drug-pricing data underneath the Maryland story, free and updated.
- Postpartum Support International (postpartum.net) runs a maternal mental-health HelpLine and a provider directory relevant to the zuranolone piece.
- The CDC STI data pages (cdc.gov/sti) carry the surveillance numbers underneath the congenital syphilis story.
Same disclosure as prior issues: we name these because their work checks out, not because they sponsor anything here. Nothing on this list is paid placement.
One question before you go: of the three, which gap landed hardest, the screening that is recommended but not reaching, the pill approved without the data, or the price cap that stops at Medicaid? Tell us at hello@blackhealth.org. We read every one.
Until next week,
The Black Health Editorial team