A sudden outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), including an increase of 26% in new syphilis infections last year, has prompted health officials to call for new prevention and treatment efforts.
In a speech on Monday at a medical conference on STDs, Dr. Leandro Mean of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said, "It is imperative that we work to rebuild, innovate, and expand (STD) prevention in the U.S."
A Rise in STD Cases
In recent years, the infection rates for some STDs, including gonorrhea and syphilis, have been on the rise. Last year, the rate of syphilis cases reached its highest since 1991, and the total number of cases hit its highest since 1948. Health officials also noted that HIV cases are rising as well, up by 16% last year.
The recent international outbreak of monkeypox, which is known to spread mainly between men who have sex with other men, has underscored the nation's worsening problem with disease spread mostly through sexual activities, as per CBS News.
The executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, David Harvey, called the situation "out of control." Now, health officials are working on new approaches to the issue, such as home-test kits for some STDs that will make it easier for some people to learn if they are infected and to take steps to prevent spreading the disease to other people, said Mena.
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Furthermore, another expert said that a core part of any effort must work to increase the use of condoms. An infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Dr. Mike Saag, said that more sexually transmitted infections occur when people are having more unprotected sex.
According to Yahoo News, syphilis is a bacterial disease that surfaces as genital sores but can also lead to severe symptoms, as well as death, if left untreated. Starting in the 1940s, new syphilis cases in the United States dropped when antibiotics became widely available.
Addressing the Situation
The cases fell to their lowest ever by 1998, when fewer than 7,000 new cases were reported across the country. The CDC was encouraged by the circumstances that it launched a plan to eliminate syphilis in the United States.
However, in 2002, the number of new infections began increasing once more, largely among gay and bisexual men. In late 2013, the CDC ended its elimination campaign in the face of limited funding and escalating cases, which, in that year, surpassed 17,000.
By 2020, cases had already reached nearly 41,700 and they jumped even further up last year, up to 52,000. In 2021, the rate of cases hit about 16 per 100,000 people diagnosed with the disease.
Officials found that the rates were highest among men who have sex with other men and among Black and Hispanic Americans and Native Americans. On the other hand, the rate for women is lower than it is for men, but authorities said it was rising at a much more unprecedented rate, up about 50% last year, 10TV reported.
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