Sexually transmitted infection rates rose among older people, CDC data shows
CDC data shows that rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in people ages 55 and up more than doubled over a 10-year period.
Sexually transmitted infections are becoming more common in older adults.
Rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in people ages 55 and up more than doubled in the U.S. over the 10-year period from 2012 to 2022, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of syphilis cases among people ages 55 and up increased seven-fold during those 10 years, while gonorrhea cases increased nearly five-fold and chlamydia cases more than tripled during that time.
A presentation to be delivered Thursday — part of a lead-up event to the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases next month — warns that both doctors and older adults are overlooking the risks of STIs in this age group.
“We talk about smoking, we talk about diet, exercise, so many things, and not about sex at all,” said Justyna Kowalska, the author of the presentation and a professor of medicine at the Medical University of Warsaw.
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