The STD rates Surge in the U.S. and Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea has CDC 'concerned'

STD rates have sharply increased for the fourth straight year with a record-setting nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis diagnosed in the U.S. in 2017, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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That number tops the cases of sexually transmitted diseases tracked in 2016 — the
year that previously held the record-high — by more than 200,000 cases, the CDC announced at the National STD Prevention Conference in Washington, D.C.

Even more alarming, doctors fear the threat of untreatable gonorrhea. The sexually transmitted bacterial infection that can cause infertility has become resistant to most antibiotics over the years.

“We expect gonorrhea will eventually wear down our last highly effective antibiotic, and additional treatment options are urgently needed,” Dr. Gail Bolan, director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, said in a statement. “We can’t let our defenses down — we must continue reinforcing efforts to rapidly detect and prevent resistance as long as possible.”

Between 2013 and 2017, diagnoses of gonorrhea increased by 67 percent, from 333,004 to 555,608 cases. The rate nearly doubled for men, jumping from 169,130 new diagnoses to 322,169.

Over that same four-year period, syphilis diagnoses increased by a whopping 76 percent from 17,375 to 30,644 cases. Men who have sex with men accounted for 70 percent of the syphilis cases in 2017 in which the gender of sex partners were known.

“We are sliding backward,” Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, said in a statement. “It is evident the systems that identify, treat, and ultimately prevent STDs are strained to near-breaking point.”

Right now, the antibiotic ceftriaxone is considered the only remaining effective gonorrhea treatment. The CDC has been recommending the shots be paired with a dose of azithromycin since 2015, in order to delay the resistance to ceftriaxone.

While there have been no confirmed cases of treatment failure from the dual therapy, resistance to azithromycin is on the rise in lab testing, bumping up from 1% to more than 4% between 2013 and 2017, the new CDC findings show.

The report did not offer a reason for the rise in STD rates, but pointed out that prior studies have suggested that everything from stigma to drug use may be contributing factors.