New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), increasingly called sexually transmitted infections or STIs, decreased at the beginning of the pandemic. By the end of 2020, however, most STDs had resurged. Gonorrhea, syphilis, and congenital syphilis[1] cases were higher than in 2019, while chlamydia cases decreased.
Data from 2021 shows that primary and secondary syphilis continued to increase from pre-pandemic years. Reported cases of chlamydia have steadily increased since 1984 until 2020 — when they decreased by nearly 13% from the year prior. Cases of syphilis among newborns (congenital syphilis) increased by nearly 15% from 2019 and most notably by 235% from 2016.
