Tainted Love

According to research conducted by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis continue to spread throughout the U.S. although the three are highly treatable.

“Chlamydia and gonorrhea are stable at unacceptably high levels and syphilis is resurgent after almost being eliminated,” said John Douglas, director of the division of sexually transmitted diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ”We have among the highest rates of STDs of any developed country in the world.”

Untreated, these three diseases can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy and can infect newborns.

Other findings in the CDC’s report were:

 · Adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 19 years old had the most chlmydia and gonorrhea cases of any age group at 409,531.

 · African-Americans, who represent only 12 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for about 71 percent of reported gonorrhea cases and almost half of all chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2008.

 · 63 percent of syphilis cases were among men who have sex with men.