New data showed a fall in syphilis and gonorrhoea cases in the US. Some sexually transmitted diseases are slowing in the US after alarming increases in the past years due to declining condom use, inadequate sex education, and reduced testing and treatment when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Last year, cases of the most infectious stages of syphilis fell 10 per cent from the year prior, marking the first substantial decline in more than two decades.
Gonorrhoea cases dropped 7 per cent, marking a second straight year of decline and bringing the number below what it was in 2019. "I’m encouraged, and it’s been a long time since I felt that way” about the nation’s epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, said the Center for Disease Control (CDC)’s Dr Jonathan Mermin. “Something is working".
More than 2.4 million cases of syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia were diagnosed and reported last year: 1.6 million cases of chlamydia, 600,000 of gonorrhoea, and more than 209,000 of syphilis.
New cases of syphilis plummeted in the US starting in the 1940s when infection-fighting antibiotics became widely available, and they trended down for a half-century after that. By 2002, however, cases began rising again, with men who have sex with other men being disproportionately affected. The new report found cases of syphilis in their early, most infectious stages dropped 13 per cent among gay and bisexual men.
It was the first such drop since the agency began reporting data for that gr.