Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Story by Karina Moreno Bueno, T'21 About 78 million people around the world are infected with gonorrhea according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2017, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported gonorrhea as the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. According to WHO, two-thirds of the world’s countries have reported antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea to all antibiotics. This may result in not being able to treat gonorrhea at all. Although a gonorrhea infection is not life-threatening, it can lead to many health problems such as pelvic inflammatory disease which can lead to ectopic pregnancy and infertility in women. In men, untreated gonorrhea can lead to epididymitis which can also lead to infertility. The problem with the bacteria is that rather than losing resistance after not being exposed to an antibiotic, they instead retain their resistance genes. This allows for gonorrhea strains to become more resistant and transfer their genes to other strains, thus, allowing for gonorrhea...

Article by Emily Woodrow Syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia are the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the United States. All three are caused by bacteria and can be treated and cured with the proper screening, diagnosis and medication. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention has recently released statistics noting a record high of 2.3 million cases of these STDs in 2017, which is an increase of 200,000 cases from 2016. Gail Bolan, the director of STD Prevention at the CDC, noted that after years of success in STD control, the US has seen sharp increased over the past four years. David Harvey, Executive of the National Coalition of STD Directors, said, "The U.S. continues to have the highest STD rates in the industrialized world.” This is largely due to the fact that so many people do not know they are infected with STDs; symptoms may not arise for weeks after one is infected. Therefore people may be unaware that are...

New Drugs for Resistant Strains for Gonorrhea

US Faces Sharp Increase in STD Rates