NEW YORK — Gonorrhea fell last year to the lowest rate ever recorded in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gonorrhea cases reported to health authorities totaled 301,174 in 2009, the Atlanta-based health agency said yesterday. That meant there were 99 cases for every 100,000 people, a rate 10 percent lower than in 2008. For the first time in five years, syphilis did not increase among women, researchers said.
The data show headway in the nation’s battle against sexually transmitted diseases, which cost the health care system an estimated $16.4 billion annually, the CDC said in a statement.
There are about 19 million new sexually transmitted infections every year in the United States, including those such as human papillomavirus and herpes that aren’t reported to the CDC, according to researchers. Each year, at least 24,000 women become infertile because of untreated sexual diseases, the CDC said.
“We’re very excited, as we see some signs of progress,’’ said Charlotte Kent, the acting director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. “We care about these, as they’re preventable causes of infertility.’’
The number of chlamydia cases rose 2.8 percent from the previous year, probably reflecting increased screening, according to the report. Syphilis increased by 5 percent to 13,997 cases.
Waiting for twitter.com to feed in the latest...