In 2017, there were nearly 2.3 million diagnoses of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis in the U.S., marking the fourth consecutive year sexually transmitted disease rates have increased.
Last year’s numbers top the 2016 rates by more than 200,000 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday at the National STD Prevention Conference in Washington, D.C.
“We are sliding backward,” Director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Jonathan Mermin said. “It is evident the systems that identify, treat, and ultimately prevent STDs are strained to near-breaking point.”
Gonorrhea diagnoses increased by 67 percent, and syphilis by 76 percent. Chlamydia has continued to be the most common STD reported to the CDC, with more than 1.7 million cases in 2017.
Although all three forms of STDs are curable with antibiotics, many cases remain undiagnosed and untreated, leading to several health problems like infertility, stillbirth in infants, and an increased vulnerability of contracting HIV.
“It is time that President Trump and [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Alex] Azar declare STDs in America a public health crisis,” Executive Director of the National Coalition of STD Directors David Harvey said at Tuesday’s conference.
Harvey said that Americans need more access to healthcare to be able to better protect themselves against contracting STDs or letting the diseases go untreated.
