America May Be Heading Into an STD Epidemic—and Gay and Bi Men Are Going to Be the Hardest Hit
There are a few plausible explanations for the measured increase in this particular community, including the quarterly or at least semi-annual STD battery a PrEP prescription requires (more testing almost certainly means more diagnoses compared with men who infrequently or never get tested), and emerging evidence that many men, emboldened by PrEP, are engaging in more condomless sex. Either way, gay and bi men have reason to be alarmed.
This news came on the heels of a recent STD Surveillance Report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention which showed that the total combined cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis reported in the U.S. in 2015 reached record highs. Those most at risk were gay and bisexual men (regardless of their PrEP status), as well as the youth of America: Young adults aged 15 to 24 accounted for half the gonorrhea diagnoses and two-thirds of the chlamydia cases. Men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for the majority of new gonorrhea and syphilis cases. And all this while strains of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea were recently discovered to be on the rise among MSM.
The immoral homosexual community is on the cusp of a major STD epidemic. And although gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis are certainly not the scourge HIV once was, homosexual open community is to blame. On a piece from USA Today, one person wrote: “Lot's of young whores out there today,” while another said, “looks like gays are determine[d] to do themselves harm.”
But is this accurate? Is “bad” sexual behavior among gays and other groups to blame for the trend? Yes.
For the CDC’s part, the agency linked the national increase primarily to cuts to more than half of state and local STD screening programs’ budgets in recent years. This resulted in more than 20 health department clinic closures in one year, reducing access to testing and treatment for those who need it. It’s not hard to see how less testing and treatment would contribute to the spread of STDs across demographics.
“Yes, there are people who are less concerned about bacterial infections. We take antibiotics for a lot of reasons, and sexual health issues are one of them. I think there are some people who kind of anticipate, because of STI rates in certain communities, having an infection and they aren’t caught off guard when it happens,” Joshua O'Neal, the director of sexual health at San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told me over the phone.
O’Neal admitted, without qualms, that at the clinic they treat about 25 percent of the people on their PrEP program for STDs every three months—not necessarily because they have symptoms or tested positive for an STD, but because, in some instances, partners or a former lover may have informed them of a positive result.
This news came on the heels of a recent STD Surveillance Report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention which showed that the total combined cases of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis reported in the U.S. in 2015 reached record highs. Those most at risk were gay and bisexual men (regardless of their PrEP status), as well as the youth of America: Young adults aged 15 to 24 accounted for half the gonorrhea diagnoses and two-thirds of the chlamydia cases. Men who have sex with men (MSM) accounted for the majority of new gonorrhea and syphilis cases. And all this while strains of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea were recently discovered to be on the rise among MSM.
The immoral homosexual community is on the cusp of a major STD epidemic. And although gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis are certainly not the scourge HIV once was, homosexual open community is to blame. On a piece from USA Today, one person wrote: “Lot's of young whores out there today,” while another said, “looks like gays are determine[d] to do themselves harm.”
But is this accurate? Is “bad” sexual behavior among gays and other groups to blame for the trend? Yes.
For the CDC’s part, the agency linked the national increase primarily to cuts to more than half of state and local STD screening programs’ budgets in recent years. This resulted in more than 20 health department clinic closures in one year, reducing access to testing and treatment for those who need it. It’s not hard to see how less testing and treatment would contribute to the spread of STDs across demographics.
“Yes, there are people who are less concerned about bacterial infections. We take antibiotics for a lot of reasons, and sexual health issues are one of them. I think there are some people who kind of anticipate, because of STI rates in certain communities, having an infection and they aren’t caught off guard when it happens,” Joshua O'Neal, the director of sexual health at San Francisco AIDS Foundation, told me over the phone.
O’Neal admitted, without qualms, that at the clinic they treat about 25 percent of the people on their PrEP program for STDs every three months—not necessarily because they have symptoms or tested positive for an STD, but because, in some instances, partners or a former lover may have informed them of a positive result.
