Hidden STD Epidemic: 110 Million Infections in the US

[NewsFeed]

Infectious diseases seem to come and go, sometimes causing scary outbreaks, while other times seeming to disappear. But some infectious pathogens are always with us, lurking just below the surface of society.

Sexually transmitted diseases are one major group of diseases that make for ongoing hidden epidemics: In the United States alone, there are nearly 20 million cases of new sexually transmitted infections yearly, from just eight viruses and bacteria, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Perhaps 20 million new cases sounds like a high number. But because infections can persist for a long time, especially in people who aren't aware they are infected, the number of existing infections at any given time is even higher, at 110 million, according to CDC researchers. [See maps of the US with STD rates by state]

The eight most common STDs in the U.S. are chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B virus (HBV), genital herpes, HIV, human papillomavirus (HPV), syphilis and trichomoniasis. About 50.5 million of these current infections are in men, and 59.5 million are in women, according to the CDC's 2013 report, in which the researchers looked at 2008 data.

Each year, new cases of STDs cost nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs. Fifty percent of these new infections occur in young people, ages 15-24, even though this age group represents only a quarter of people who have had sex.

There are large differences in how commonly these STDs occur. Chlamydia and HPV are the two most common newly acquired sexually transmitted infections affecting millions of people each year, whereas new infections with HIV and hepatitis B occur in less than 50,000 people yearly.

For some diseases, such as chlamydia, the number of new infections in a given year is higher than the number of existing infections. That's because the new infections that are diagnosed and treated are not counted in the estimate of existing infections, said Elizabeth Torrone, a researcher at the CDC's center for STDs. On the other hand, viruses such as HIV cause life-long infections, and so the number of existing infections is much higher than the number of new cases yearly.

The most current data estimates that about 1.8 million people have chlamydia, as opposed to 1.6 million in the previous study. But because estimates have a margin of error, the current rate should not be interpreted as an increase, Torrone told Live Science.

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