Season 12 • Episode 971

971 - An Update on Syphilis in the Great Plains Region

Nov 3, 2025

17:04

Episode Description

About this episode:

Last spring, Dr. Meghan Curry O'Connell joined Public Health On Call from ground zero of a syphilis outbreak among American Indian and Alaskan Native people in the Great Plains Region. In this episode: She provides an update on the situation, explaining how a collaborative team has been able to overcome obstacles and make progress.

Guests:

Dr. Meghan Curry O'Connell, MPH, is the chief public health officer at the Great Plains Tribal Leaders Health Board and a member of the Cherokee Nation.

Host:

Lindsay Smith Rogers, MA, is the producer of the Public Health On Call podcast, an editor for Expert Insights, and the director of content strategy for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Show links and related content:

Efforts to curb SD's syphilis outbreak yield results, but public health advocate says work remains—South Dakota Searchlight
How a fight over data made South Dakota's bad syphilis outbreak worse—Vox
A Public Health Emergency: Syphilis Surges in the Great Plains Region—Public Health On Call (May 2024)

Transcript information:

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