Sexually transmitted diseases reach record highs in US

Syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia have risen for the fourth straight year in the US, reaching record levels and creating a public health crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned.

The report was presented at the CDC’s national conference on sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention on 28 August in Washington, DC.1 David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, urged President Donald Trump and Alex Azar, secretary of health and human services, to declare STDs a public health crisis and to provide emergency access to public health funding to help lower the rates of infection.

“The United States continues to have the highest STD rates in the industrialized world,” said Harvey. “We are in the midst of …