The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing a disturbing rise in the number of three common sexually transmitted diseases hit a record high in the USA last year.
The agency noted earlier studies have pointed to a range of factors that could be tied to STD increases, “including socioeconomic factors like poverty, stigma, and discrimination; and drug use.”
The report said with nearly 2.3 million cases reported it eclipsed the record set in 2016 by more than 200,000 cases.
Data from 2013, compared with 2017’s preliminary data, showed “steep, sustained increases” in reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, the CDC said.
It warned that gonorrhea is showing signs of becoming resistant to the antibiotics used to treat it.
The findings were released Tuesday at the National STD Prevention Conference in Washington, D.C.
Along with dramatic increases in syphilis cases (up 76 percent from 2013) and chlamydia cases (a 45 percent increase among girls and women 15 to 24 years old), CDC officials said they are concerned about a spike in gonorrhea.
The number of cases went up 67 percent overall but nearly doubled in men, from 169,130 cases in 2013 to 322,169 cases in 2017.
The disease also has spread among women for the third year in a row and went from 197,499 cases reported in 2013 to 232,587 cases in 2017, said to a CDC press release.