CDC Reports Increase in Rates of STDs     11/28/2007

Washington, D.C. — The just-released figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show an increase in the rate of all three of the major sexually transmitted diseases and a record high number of cases of chlamydia. The report stresses the disproportionate affect of these increases on women and infants.

• The record high increase (nearly six percent) in chlamydia is particularly significant since it can cause sterility in women and often goes undetected. Currently, there are more than a million cases of chlamydia in the U.S. with female cases three times the rate among men, though the male rate is up 36 percent.

• Gonorrhea, having declined from the mid-seventies to the late nineties, is up five-and-a-half percent since 2005, with female cases higher than among men.

• Syphilis rates had dropped so low by 2000 that the Surgeon General launched a plan to totally eliminate the STD. Instead, the CDC reports an increase of nearly 14 percent.

Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse, Director and Senior Fellow of Concerned Women for America’s Beverly LaHaye Institute, said, “It seems obvious that American society is paying a high price for promoting sexual promiscuity — especially with the record high number of chlamydia cases. This STD is notoriously difficult to detect and it is virtually asymptomatic, yet it is a leading cause of sterility. With many young women engaging in recreational sex — sometimes having three-to-five partners a year — they are foolishly engaging in behavior that will affect the rest of their lives.”

Crouse continued, “In spite of the known risks and virtually inevitable outcomes of recreational sex, we continue to mislead young people into thinking that they can sow their wild oats without reaping a harvest of broken hearts, damaged bodies and incurable STDs.”

For Information Contact:
Natalie Bell
(202) 488-7000
media.cwfa.org

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