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On Tuesday in a telephone
conference with journalists, CDC officials reported that while US gonorrhea
rates have dropped to their lowest recorded level, syphilis and chlamydia
are on the rise.
In 2004, the national
gonorrhea rate fell to 113.5 cases per 100,000 people. This was the STD's
lowest rate since 1941, when the government began tracking cases, said Dr.
Ronald O. Valdiserri, acting director of the HIV, STD and TB prevention unit
at CDC. According to Valdiserri and Dr. John M. Douglas, CDC's STD
prevention director, gonorrhea rates soared in the late 1960s and peaked in
the 1970s due to changes in sexual behavior, increased use of oral
contraceptives and decreased use of condoms. Rates fell in the 1980s in
response to increased control measures. However, Douglas noted that the
330,132 cases reported in 2004 were likely less than half the number
estimated to have actually occurred.
After hitting an
all-time low in 2000, rates of early-stage syphilis rose for four
consecutive years to reach 2.7 cases per 100,000 in 2004. CDC said this
increase is largely due to more infections among men who have sex with men.
Many MSM, Valdiserri said, may not realize that oral sex can transmit
syphilis. The early-stage syphilis rate for men climbed from 2.6 cases per
100,000 in 2000 to 4.7 cases in 2004.
CDC documented 929,462
cases of Chlamydia in 2004, but it estimated that 2.8 million new infections
probably took place that year. The Chlamydia rate hit 319.6 cases per
100,000, up 5.9 percent from 2003. Valdiserri said improved and increased
screening, not an actual increase in new infections, was likely behind the
higher figure for this STD.
Valdiserri
acknowledged "a resource challenge" in the fight against
STDs. "We certainly
hear from state and local health departments that they do not always have
the resources they require to address all the STD issues that they need to
address," he said.
And while the Internet
appears to have fueled the increase of some high-risk behavior, CDC said
public-health workers are also using it as a means to educate gay men and
others about the dangers of unprotected sex.
The estimated 19
million new STD infections that occurred in 2004 resulted in health care
costs of about $19 billion, CDC said.
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