WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The number of sexually transmitted infections remains high in the United States, with more than 2.4 million reported in 2023. However, the latest data from CDC show signs of the epidemic slowing.
Gonorrhea cases dropped for a second year, declining 7 percent from 2022 and falling below pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels, says the report, titled Sexually Transmitted Infections Surveillance, 2023.
Overall, syphilis cases increased only marginally, by just 1 percent, after years of double-digit increases.
Primary and secondary syphilis cases, the most infectious stages of syphilis, fell 10 percent - the first substantial decline in more than two decades. These cases also dropped 13 percent among gay and bisexual men for the first time since CDC began reporting national trends among this population in the mid-2000s.
'I see a glimmer of hope amidst millions of STIs,' says Jonathan Mermin, M.D., M.P.H., Director of CDC's National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. 'After nearly two decades of STI increases, the tide is turning. We must make the most of this moment-let's further this momentum with creative innovation and further investment in STI prevention.'
While the STI epidemic touches nearly every community, some geographic areas and populations are affected more severely, including American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino people, as well as gay and bisexual men. These health equity differences are due in part to deeply entrenched factors that create obstacles to quality health services, such as poverty, lack of health insurance, less access to health care, and stigma, the report says.
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