Public health experts discussed how nationwide trends of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis testing and diagnosis have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic at a virtual roundtable as part of the 2020 STD Prevention Conference September 14.

Reported cases of the sexually transmitted diseases/infections declined upon the imposition of shelter-in-place orders throughout much of the United States in March, but by summer cases of both gonorrhea and syphilis had rebounded.

Dr. Gail Bolan, the director of the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that reported numbers of STDs were at record highs at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Hillard Weinstock, chief of surveillance and data centers for the division at the CDC, said that STD numbers had been at a record high in the U.S. in the last five years. "Earlier this year, STD levels were above 2019 levels, but that changed in early March," Weinstock said. "Data show a drop in STD cases in the spring and summer of 2020, compared to the same point in 2019."

By June, Weinstock said, year-to-date cases of chlamydia had declined 53% from 2019 numbers, year-to-date cases of gonorrhea had declined 43% from 2019 numbers, and year-to-date cases of syphilis had declined 33% from 2019 numbers. However, by mid-June, new cases of gonorrhea and syphilis had returned to 2019 numbers, according to Weinstock. Read more via Bay Area Reporter