The US Hasn’t Seen Syphilis Numbers This High Since 1950, Other STD Rates Down Or Flat
January 30, 2024 10:18AM PST
FILE – This 1966 microscope photo made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a tissue sample with the presence of numerous, corkscrew-shaped, darkly-stained, Treponema pallidum spirochetes, the bacterium responsible for causing syphilis. On Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, alarmed by yet another jump in syphilis cases in newborns, U.S. health officials are calling for stepped-up prevention measures, including encouraging millions of women of childbearing age and their partners to get tested for the sexually transmitted disease. (Skip Van Orden/CDC via AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Infectious syphilis cases in the U.S. rose by 9% in 2022.
That’s according to a new federal government report on sexually transmitted diseases in adults.
The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first time in a decade, while chlamydia rates were relatively flat.
Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are most focused on syphilis.
Data release Tuesday shows total cases surpassed 207,000 in 2022.
It is the highest count in the United States since 1950, and is rising in heterosexual men and women
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