STDs Are Spreading Faster Than Ever Before: Why Rates Hit A New High In US
Sexually transmitted diseases are spreading more and more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released infection numbers that show several sexually transmitted diseases, including syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea are being transmitted to more people, and at faster rates. These three are, however, all curable with antibiotics.
The report focused on these three disease because of the high rates of transmission and the availability of recent, reliable data.
“The STD epidemic is getting worse in the United States and, in fact, is at its highest levels yet,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, told NBC.
In 2015, according to the CDC numbers, there were almost 400,000 gonorrhea cases, about 24,000 syphilis cases and more than 1.5 million cases of chlamydia. NBC noted that numbers increased due to better reporting of infections, but that factor alone does not account for all the increases, which are mostly among gay and bisexual men and young people in their late teens and early 20s.
“Part of the increase may be due to better treatment for HIV, which may make people believe — usually wrongly — they do not need to use condoms,” NBC wrote, while noting that state and local health departments have been getting less funding to address the new patients, with some having to close STD clinics. “That means young people most vulnerable to new infection have fewer places to go for help, advice, testing and treatment.”