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Cases of gonorrhea are skyrocketing in the U.S. after hitting a historic low in 2009. In 2020 (the most recent year data is available), more than 675,000 gonorrhea cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the second most common sexually transmitted infection behind chlamydia.
In fact, rates of reported gonorrhea have gone up 111% since 2009. But despite its prevalence, many people don’t know a lot about the infection. Here are important facts to keep in mind, just in case.
It’s not spread by kissing or sharing food.
Gonorrhea, which is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, spreads through sexual contact with the penis, vagina, mouth or anus of someone who is infected, the CDC explains. A person doesn’t need to ejaculate for gonorrhea to be spread. It can also be spread from mother to baby during childbirth, infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells Yahoo Life.
Having gonorrhea once doesn’t prevent you from getting it again: The CDC says that people who have had gonorrhea and been treated for it can be reinfected if they have sexual contact with someone with gonorrhea.
It’s not uncommon to have gonorrhea and chlamydia at the same time.
Research has shown that up to 50% of all teens and young adults who tested positive for gonorrhea at STD clinics, family planning centers and juvenile detention centers also had chlamydia. Adalja says this can happen simply because “individuals who have gonorrhea are also likely to have risk factors for chlamydia and vice versa.” And, he points out, “They are both transmitted in the same manner and have the same risks for acquisition.”
Many people with gonorrhea don’t have symptoms.
Most men and women with gonorrhea are asymptomatic — meaning, they don’t have symptoms, the CDC says. The reason for this likely comes down to individual immune responses, Adalja says. Some people’s immune systems don’t have a strong response to the bacteria and, as a result, don’t trigger symptoms, he explains.
Because many people with gonorrhea may go undiagnosed, “the true number of those who are asymptomatic is not known,” Dr. Nancy Phillips, associate professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of the Center for Vulvovaginal Health, tells Yahoo Life.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gon...ti-heres-what-you-need-to-know-140036429.html
In fact, rates of reported gonorrhea have gone up 111% since 2009. But despite its prevalence, many people don’t know a lot about the infection. Here are important facts to keep in mind, just in case.
It’s not spread by kissing or sharing food.
Gonorrhea, which is caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, spreads through sexual contact with the penis, vagina, mouth or anus of someone who is infected, the CDC explains. A person doesn’t need to ejaculate for gonorrhea to be spread. It can also be spread from mother to baby during childbirth, infectious disease expert Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells Yahoo Life.
Having gonorrhea once doesn’t prevent you from getting it again: The CDC says that people who have had gonorrhea and been treated for it can be reinfected if they have sexual contact with someone with gonorrhea.
It’s not uncommon to have gonorrhea and chlamydia at the same time.
Research has shown that up to 50% of all teens and young adults who tested positive for gonorrhea at STD clinics, family planning centers and juvenile detention centers also had chlamydia. Adalja says this can happen simply because “individuals who have gonorrhea are also likely to have risk factors for chlamydia and vice versa.” And, he points out, “They are both transmitted in the same manner and have the same risks for acquisition.”
Many people with gonorrhea don’t have symptoms.
Most men and women with gonorrhea are asymptomatic — meaning, they don’t have symptoms, the CDC says. The reason for this likely comes down to individual immune responses, Adalja says. Some people’s immune systems don’t have a strong response to the bacteria and, as a result, don’t trigger symptoms, he explains.
Because many people with gonorrhea may go undiagnosed, “the true number of those who are asymptomatic is not known,” Dr. Nancy Phillips, associate professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of the Center for Vulvovaginal Health, tells Yahoo Life.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/gon...ti-heres-what-you-need-to-know-140036429.html
