The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) preliminary data of 2021 STIs Surveillance released this month shows a steep escalation in the number of STIs with the total infections beating the record number of STIs documented in the US in 2020, increasing from 2.4 to 2.5 million.
The CDC data found that amid a broader rise in sexually transmitted infections, syphilis rates jumped 26% last year – the biggest annual jump since the Truman administration- Chlamydia increased 3 percent after the decline in 2020, while gonorrhea reached almost 700,000 infections in 2021, increasing 2.8%.
The number of babies who contract the condition in the womb and were born with congenital syphilis in 2021 climbed 24 percent, but numbers show the gravity of the situation is evidently worsened in the last two decades.
While in 2021 the number of babies with congenital syphilis was 2,600 babies, back in 2000 it was 529, making doctors believe that they’re on the verge to eliminate the condition.
The alarming national trend in STIs statistics comes as local health departments are contending with an unprecedented monkeypox outbreak while still battling Covid infections.
The executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, David Harvey, stressed that safety net clinics that provide essential services are in desperate need of federal support since monkeypox is inundating these programs and interrupting their ability to diagnose and treat other STIs. He reiterated that the situation with sexually transmitted infections worsened considerably during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, Leandro Mena, that chronic underfunding of public health programs – especially at the local level- which led to a reduction in screening, treatment, and partner services is largely to blame for these STI increases.
The situation will only get worse, as public health officials have warned if Obamacare’s requirement that insurance cover services like STD tests and HIV prevention drugs are eliminated, as a Texas lawsuit demands.
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