But there's some unexpected good news: The rate of new gonorrhea cases fell for the first time in a decade. Total cases surpassed 207,000 in 2022, the highest count in the United States since 1950, according to data released Tuesday. About 59,000 of the 2022 cases involved the most infectious forms of syphilis. STD testing was disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and officials believe that's the reason the chlamydia rate fell in 2020. “We are encouraged by the magnitude of the decline,” Mermin said, though the gonorrhea rate is still higher now than it was pre-pandemic.

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Persons: It's, gonorrhea, Philip Chan, Meghan O’Connell, O'Connell, Jonathan Mermin, ” Mermin Organizations: U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, CDC, Brown University, Plains Tribal, ’, U.S . Department of Health, Human Services, District of Columbia, CDC’s National Center, HIV, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: United States, U.S, Providence , Rhode Island, Alaska, South Dakota, New Mexico, South, Rapid City , South Dakota