[ChotooMotoo]

U.S. sets record in sexual disease cases

By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

ATLANTA - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.


"A new U.S. record," said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More bad news: Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics, federal officials said Tuesday.

Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis — which can deform or kill babies — rose for the first time in 15 years.

"Hopefully we will not see this turn into a trend," said Dr. Khalil Ghanem, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University's School of medicine.

The CDC releases a report each year on chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, three diseases caused by sexually transmitted bacteria.

Chlamydia is the most common. Nearly 1,031,000 cases were reported last year, up from 976,000 the year before.

The count broke the single-year record for reported cases of a sexually transmitted disease, which was 1,013,436 cases of gonorrhea, set in 1978.

Putting those numbers into rates, there were about 349 cases of chlamydia per 100,000 people in 2006, up 5.6 percent from the 329 per 100,000 rate in 2005.

CDC officials say the chlamydia record may not be all bad news: They think the higher number is largely a result of better and more intensive screening.

For more than 10 years, the CDC has recommended annual screening in sexually active women ages 15 to 25. Meanwhile, urine and swab tests for the bacteria are getting better and are used more often, for men as well as women, said Douglas, director of the CDC's Division of Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention.

About three-quarters of women infected with chlamydia have no symptoms. Left untreated, the infection can spread and ultimately can lead to infertility. It's easily treated if caught early.

Health officials believe as many as 2.8 million new cases may actually be occurring each year, he added.

Gonorrhea is a different story.

In 2004, the nation's gonorrhea rate fell to 113.5 cases per 100,000 people in 2004, the lowest level since the government started tracking cases in 1941.

But since then, health officials have seen two consecutive years of increases. The 2006 rate — about 121 per 100,000 — represents a 5.5 percent increase from 2005.

Health officials don't know exactly how many superbug cases there were among the more than 358,000 gonorrhea cases reported in 2006. But a surveillance project of 28 cities found that 14 percent were resistant to ciprofloxacin and other medicines in the fluoroquinolones class of antibiotics.

Similar samples found that 9 percent were resistant to those antibiotics in 2005, and 7 percent were resistant in 2004. The appearance of the superbug has been previously reported, and the CDC is April advised doctors to stop using those drugs against gonorrhea.

Douglas said it doesn't look like the superbugs are the reason for gonorrhea's escalating numbers overall, but they're not sure what is driving the increase.

Other doctors are worried. The superbug gonorrhea has been on the rise not only in California and Hawaii, where the problem has been most noticeable, but also in the South and parts of the Midwest.

"Suddenly we're starting to see the spread," Ghanem said.

Syphilis, a potentially deadly disease that first shows up as genital sores, has become relatively rare in the United States. About 9,800 cases of the most contagious forms or syphilis were reported in 2006, up from about 8,700 in 2005.

The rate rose from 2.9 cases per 100,000 people to 3.3, a 14 percent increase.

For congenital syphilis, in which babies get syphilis from their mothers, the rate rose only slightly from the previous year to 8.5 cases per 100,000 live births.
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They don't know what's driving the increase? Hmmm... couldn't be that more people are having sex with more partners could it? How else are STD's transmitted?

[Khairan]

Originally Posted by ChotooMotoo

They don't know what's driving the increase? Hmmm... couldn't be that more people are having sex with more partners could it? How else are STD's transmitted?

Not necessarily true. There is a difference between being *aware* of more cases of STDs and there truly being more STDs incident in the population, and it is often difficult to tease apart the difference. The article certainly doesn't give us enough information to do so.

I'll give you an example: in the past 20 or so years, we've seen the incidence (i.e. new onset) of autism rise quite a bit in the population as compared to even 20 or 30 years ago. Is there something *causing* more autism? No -- what is happening is that physicians are now much more aware of the entity and are accurately identifying it.

Now, I'm not saying that your suggestion is false: it can most definitely be true that we are seeing a true rise of STDs as a result of increased promiscuity and poor safe-sex practices. However, we don't know that from the information provided.

[ChotooMotoo]

Originally Posted by Khairan

Not necessarily true. There is a difference between being *aware* of more cases of STDs and there truly being more STDs incident in the population, and it is often difficult to tease apart the difference. The article certainly doesn't give us enough information to do so.

I'll give you an example: in the past 20 or so years, we've seen the incidence (i.e. new onset) of autism rise quite a bit in the population as compared to even 20 or 30 years ago. Is there something *causing* more autism? No -- what is happening is that physicians are now much more aware of the entity and are accurately identifying it.

Now, I'm not saying that your suggestion is false: it can most definitely be true that we are seeing a true rise of STDs as a result of increased promiscuity and poor safe-sex practices. However, we don't know that from the information provided.

The article does mention your concerns. On the other hand, some recent studies of sexual practices among gay men found that safer sex practices are declining, leading to an increased rate of HIV among that population. For diseases like chlamidya and ghonorhea which are a little harder to screen for becuase they can look like more common things like a UTI, I see your point. The rising rates of syphalis though, that is quite troubling, and to me seems to point to an increase in promiscuity and decline in safer sex practices. I read another article about the rise in STD's among teenagers, even though teen pregnancy rates apear to be declining slightly. To me that indicates that teens are having sex earlier, with more partners, aren't using condoms, but are using birth control pills.

Of course I could be completely wrong, and sexual practices aren't any different, and it is just better testing, and more frequent testing. Oh, and my spelling is atrocious today.

[Khairan]

Originally Posted by ChotooMotoo

The article does mention your concerns. On the other hand, some recent studies of sexual practices among gay men found that safer sex practices are declining, leading to an increased rate of HIV among that population. For diseases like chlamidya and ghonorhea which are a little harder to screen for becuase they can look like more common things like a UTI, I see your point. The rising rates of syphalis though, that is quite troubling, and to me seems to point to an increase in promiscuity and decline in safer sex practices. I read another article about the rise in STD's among teenagers, even though teen pregnancy rates apear to be declining slightly. To me that indicates that teens are having sex earlier, with more partners, aren't using condoms, but are using birth control pills.

Of course I could be completely wrong, and sexual practices aren't any different, and it is just better testing, and more frequent testing. Oh, and my spelling is atrocious today.

For sure, all of the issues you are raising are completely valid. I'm by no means suggesting that the increase in STDs *couldn't* be a "real" finding; I am merely addressing the comment in your first post which seemed to suggest there was little possible other explanation. I'm making a point of this because I think it is important to understand not only the patterns in disease reporting but also the cause of those patterns, as failing to do so can lead to erroneous or ineffective solutions.

[ChotooMotoo]

Originally Posted by Khairan

For sure, all of the issues you are raising are completely valid. I'm by no means suggesting that the increase in STDs *couldn't* be a "real" finding; I am merely addressing the comment in your first post which seemed to suggest it there was little possible other explanation. I'm making a point of this because I think it is important to understand not only the patterns in disease reporting but also the cause of those patterns, as failing to do so can lead to erroneous or ineffective solutions.

Oh for sure. In some ways it is a positive sign to see the apparent rates increase, becuase that means that more cases are being reported. More cases reported means a better idea of disease prevalence, and more effective strategies to combat the problems can be developed.

I find it interesting that even with the threat of AIDS and other serious STD's there are still people out there either ignorant of the risk, or willing to take the risk. I would be most interested to see the diseasse rates (adjusted for under-reporting in unerserved areas) by geographical location, combined with the unmarried birth rates. I think comparing all those things would give a better idea of sexual practices in this country, and how well sex education in schools is doing to combat the problems.

[RestlessSoul]

I read the title of this thread from a flag-waving republican mindset:

USA! USA! #1!

[psychoteddybear]

wow that's something to be proud of! Go USA!

[Aryan_]

This is one record I'm happy for America to keep