CDC Warns US Citizens of an Increasing STI Epidemic

According to official data, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the rise throughout the United States and show no signs of slowing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 2.53 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis in 2021. This is an increase of 7% from 2017 and almost 6% from 2020.

While the prevalence of some STIs was still lower in 2021 than it was prior to the pandemic, the prevalence of others, such as syphilis, is at its highest level in more than 70 years.

During the pandemic, officials have laid the blame for limited access to healthcare and increasingly lax attitudes toward contraception. In a statement, Dr. Leandro Mena, director of the CDC’s division of STD prevention, said that, the US STI epidemic shows no signs of slowing.

Of the almost 54,000 announced essential and optional syphilis cases in 2021, north of 31% were among men who have intercourse with men just, while men who have intercourse with men just joined with men who engage in sexual relations with all kinds of people represented almost 36% of all cases.

Until 2000, all fifty states and the District of Columbia did not require reports of chlamydia. Consistent expansions in chlamydia case rates starting in 1996 are expected to some degree to further developed revealing and testing framework.