Gonorrhea rate drops in St. Louis after years in nation’s top five

St. Louis’ Department of Public Health has announced that the city no longer has one of the country’s highest rates of gonorrheal transmission, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The news comes after the recent release of data from 2009, compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), indicating the local rates of chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea infection nationwide.

In the past decade, the media agency reports, St. Louis has consistently been among the top five cities for both chlamydia and gonorrhea infections. Based on the new CDC data, the city now ranks 12th.

St. Louis’ rate of gonorrheal infection has dropped 55 percent from five years ago, the news site continues. The local Department of Public Health attributes this decline to improved sexual education services and newly instituted sexually transmitted disease (STD) screening programs.

For those who believe they have contracted gonorrhea or another STD, online testing services may provide non-intrusive and accurate diagnoses.

While the CDC reports that the national rate of gonorrhea infection has recently reached its lowest recorded level, it warns that more than 700,000 Americans still contract the STD every year.