Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Syphilis Rates Up
The CDC's annual report on STD rates in the United States is in, and the news about chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis is not good.
A new report from the CDC shows that rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis rose from 2015 to 2016. ©royaltystockphoto/Shutterstock.com
In 2016, 1,598,354 cases of chlamydia were reported in 2016-- a 4.7% increase since 2015. Those most affected were adolescent and young females. ©Tatiana Shepeleva/Shutterstock.com
In 2016, 468,514 cases of gonorrhea were reported. This represents an 18.5% increase since 2015. Antimicrobial resistance to therapy is an important consideration. Dual therapy with ceftriaxone and azithromycin is now the only CDC recommended treatment. ©fotovapl/Shutterstock.com
The 27,814 reported primary and secondary cases of syphilis infection represents a 17.6% increase since 2015. In 2016, 90% of those infected were men. And of those male cases for whom the gender of the sex partner was known, 80.6% were men who had sex with men. Cases of congenital syphilis were up too: in 2016, there were 628 reported cases, including 41 syphilitic stillbirths--a 27.6% increase from the previous year. ©TisforThan/Shutterstock.com
Gail Bolan, MD, Director, Division of STD Prevention at the CDC writes: [These data point] ". . . to our need for public health and health care action for each of the cases in this report, as they represent real people, not just numbers." ©pkorchagina/Shutterstock.com
In its overview of STDs in 2016, the CDC reports that each year in the US, there are about 20,000,000 new STDs. Half of those affected are young â between 15 to 24 years old. And at any given time, there are 110,000,000 new and existing sexually transmitted infections  In the slides above you'll find a snapshot of data for chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis-the 3 notifiable diseases for which there are federally funded control programs.
References:
2016 Sexually Transmitted Diseases Surveillance. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed October 3, 2017. https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats16/natoverview.htm