SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Some good news for you. Efforts to stop the spread of sexually transmitted infections are proving to be effective. New data from the federal government shows that STI cases are coming down. NPR's Will Stone joins us. Will, thanks so much for being with us.
WILL STONE, BYLINE: Sure thing, Scott.
SIMON: What can you tell us about these latest numbers?
STONE: So this report focused on syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea cases from last year. Overall, there were over 2.4 million of these three sexually transmitted infections in the U.S. And that represents a slight decrease of about 2% compared to 2022. So we're not talking about a massive change year to year. But just to put this in context, Scott, infections had climbed in recent years to historically high levels. Overall, they're up about 90% over the last two decades, which means the fact that cases seem to be slowing down now is actually quite promising.
SIMON: Do we have any sense of why things are improving?
STONE: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still sorting through the data, trying to figure that out. A few things do stand out. Gonorrhea cases are down for the second year. Also, syphilis appears to be slowing down after years of significant increases. Here's what Dr. Bradley Stoner from the CDC told me.
BRADLEY STONER: I think that we're seeing a prevention impact of work that's going on in communities all over the country, and it's really starting to show some benefit, but also, there's a tremendous amount of work left to do, so we just can't waste the momentum.
STONE: When you look at who is being most affected, a couple of trends are clear. People in their teens to mid-20s account for about half of the cases. Men who have sex with men are disproportionately affected. There are also racial disparities with new cases affecting Black Americans in particular.
SIMON: Dr. Stoner mentioned prevention efforts. What do those look like exactly?
STONE: So this is the work that happens on the local level with health departments. There's education and awareness, access to testing and treatment and having more people who do the front-line public health work. They're known as disease intervention specialists. Basically, they investigate outbreaks and help patients navigate the health care system. David Harvey thinks they had a big part to play in this improvement. He leads the National Coalition of STD Directors, which the CDC calls STIs now, and says there was funding from Congress in response to COVID several years ago that supported this workforce. That ended up benefiting STI prevention work, too.
DAVID HARVEY: We think it's a meaningful outcome from this investment of additional dollars. And we don't think this will be sustained (ph).
STONE: In other words, without more investment, he expects the numbers will go up again. And he points out the base funding for the CDC on STI prevention is half of what they think it should be. He said there are some really troubling trends, notably around congenital syphilis - literally thousands of babies being born with syphilis in a year.
SIMON: Will, what are the prospects for this work continuing given the changes in Washington, D.C.?
STONE: Yeah. Obviously, Scott, there are questions about funding priorities with the new Congress and administration, especially in the realm of public health. That said, the first Trump administration took interest in this issue. It actually started the Ending HIV initiative and came up with the first federal STI action plan, which is due for an update. So there will certainly be wrangling over the budget, but Harvey is cautiously optimistic that this should be a bipartisan work.
SIMON: NPR's Will Stone. Thanks so much.
STONE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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