Number of diagnosed STDs is growing

The boost may come from unsafe sex, increased testing, improved diagnostic technology and emerging drug resistance.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Dec. 10, 2007.

For the second year running, incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis all increased, according to "Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2006," a report published last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"STDs pose a serious and ongoing health threat to millions of Americans," said John Douglas, MD, director of the CDC's Division of STD Prevention.

Chlamydia remains the most common reportable infectious disease, no matter what the route of transmission. In 2006, 1,030,911 cases were reported. This amount represented a nearly 6% boost from the previous year. Many experts suspect that some of the growth may be from expanded screening and more sensitive testing technology, although it also may represent a true jump in rates.

"If there are providers who think the young women in their practice don't have chlamydia, they should think again," said Stuart Berman, MD, the CDC's chief of Epidemiology and Surveillance in the Division of STD Prevention.

Gonorrhea infections went up by almost 6% as well, with 358,366 cases noted. Public health officials are particularly concerned because this bug is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Nearly 14% of infections were immune to fluoroquinolones last year, far more than the 9.4% reported in 2005.