STD Report From CDC Has Mixed News

W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 5 -- Syphilis rates are thelowest they have been since officials started keeping track inthe United States, the government said today, butgonorrhea rates have started a troubling rise.

These figures suggest that targeted information campaignswork, and that keeping people in the dark about sexuallytransmitted diseases gives those illnesses a chance to takehold, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saidin its report, released at a meeting in Milwaukee.

The United States still has very high rates of sexuallytransmitted diseases or STDs, the CDC said in its report.

“And while some STDs, such as syphilis, have been broughtto all-time lows, others, like genital herpes, gonorrhea andchlamydia, continue to resurge and spread through thepopulation,” it said.

Genital herpes alone affects 20 million Americans.

Syphilis, a scourge for centuries, can cause chronicillness, madness and death, but is easily treated with modernantibiotics. Last year the CDC launched a campaign to wipe itout in the United States.

“Syphilis is going down, we believe, because of ourconcerted efforts at syphilis elimination,” Dr. Ron Valdiserri,deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, STD andTB prevention, said in a telephone interview.

The efforts include getting local churches and healthauthorities involved, better surveillance and screening.

A Syphilis Low

“Rates of syphilis are at all-time lows — they are thelowest they ever been since we began reporting in 1941,”Valdiserri said. The rate is now 2.5 cases per 100,000 people,down from 3.2 per 100,000 in 1997.

But that figure is the only good news in the report.

“For the first time in two decades we are seeing anincrease in gonorrhea rates,” Valdiserri said.

The gonorrhea rate rose more than 9 percent from 1975 to1999, after a 72 percent decline from 1975 to 1997. This upwardcreep might be due to increased screening and better tests,Valdiserri said.