A spike in STDs alarms the CDC according to a recent report that the organization has released. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have analyzed the rapid increase in cases of sexually transmitted diseases and have found it to be alarming.
According to the report that the CDC has recently made available to the public, several sexually transmitted diseases have increased significantly in the past few years. Syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea cases have surged in number last year for the first time since 2006. According to the CDC the number of chlamydia cases reported in 2014 was 1.4 million, the highest number of cases of a sexually transmitted disease ever to be reported.
Gonorrhea cases also went up by 5 percent since the previous year, adding up to 350,000 cases reported in 2014, while syphilis cases amounted to 200,000. The surge can be accounted for mostly by young adults who have contacted the infections after becoming sexually active. According to the CDC half of the 20 million sexually transmitted diseases occur among people aged between 15 and 24 years and that this group remains the one that is most at risk of contracting an STD.
Representatives of the CDC explain that the worsening situation concerning the number of STD cases has also been observed among the gay and bisexual population. The most at risk are young gay and bisexual men, as they fare worse than other segments of the population.
Another factor that can influence the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases is that of behavioral patterns and how they influence sexual activity. There are a number of individual risk behaviors that can influence how much a certain group may be exposed to the risk of contracting STDs.
Among these factors are higher numbers of sexual partners during the individual’s lifetime as well as social, environmental and cultural factors such as an increased prevalence of STDs within the community or an increased difficulty of accessing health care. All of these aspects influence how many cases of sexually transmitted diseases will be recorded within certain groups and can help explain why gay and bisexual men may have more problems regarding sexual health.
As a consequence of the report it provided, the agency reiterated its recommendation of regular screenings for young adults with active sexual lives explaining that sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea and chlamydia can lack obvious symptoms which can cause them to go undiagnosed and have severe repercussions on reproductive health, especially for women.
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