Gonorrhea Rate In U.S. At Record Low, Other STDs Rise

ATLANTA — A new government report on sexually spread diseases shows gonorrhea in the United States has dipped to the lowest rate ever recorded.

But chlamydia (KLAH'-mid-ee-ah) and syphilis infections continued to increase last year. That's according to a report released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency says there are roughly 19 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases annually.

Gonorrhea dropped to 301,000 cases, the lowest rate since reporting began in 1941.

Chlamydia reached another record high with 1.2 million cases. It's an easily treatable infection, mostly in young women. Officials attribute the increase to more and better screening. Syphilis inched up again to 14,000 cases.

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Online:

Report: http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats09/default.htm

Comments

[amantedelibros]

08:35 AM on 11/28/2010

Except in Alaska. Isn't there an article on here that talks about the high rate of gonorrhea in Alaska?

[roudy]

10:08 PM on 11/24/2010

The quitterpants clan is migrating south. Look for spikes in the numbers of cases.

[BacSi]

09:30 AM on 11/24/2010

Not sure what this all means. And while syph may be going up-----is 14,000 a really big number?

"In 1990, more than 50,000 cases of primary and secondary (P&S) syphilis were reported, the highest number of cases since 1948."

Granted 1990 was a banner year for catching STD's. But 50,000 P&S cases. Not counting the latent and early latent cases they also found.

Bad blood DX going up is a bad thing. But even so 14,000 might be seen as a hopeful sign that things could be a lot lot worse.

When I worked in this field for CDC we always knew that increased detection through case finding or screening would lead to a larger number of cases. Less screening and bad case finding might lead to a view that the number of people with bad blood was down. When only the DX for the infection was down.

[Troff]

03:50 AM on 11/23/2010

Go syphilis! At least there's one patron of the arts going strong.

[Half-Alien]

09:11 PM on 11/22/2010

No joke boys and girls. They aren't perfect and neither are you. Wrap it up!