America's STD hotspots laid bare in new analysis of CDC data… is your hometown an epicenter?

Singletons in Philadelphia beware – the city has just been ranked America’s STD hotspot.

One in 65 residents in Philly caught a sexually transmitted infection in 2022, according to an analysis of the latest CDC data.

Memphis, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi, took second and third place, respectively, where the rate was about one in 67.

Meanwhile this was nearly twice as high as the national average for 2022, which was about one in 130.  

While most of the infections were caused by gonorrhea and chlamydia, there has been a ‘deadly rise’ in syphilis which can be particularly deadly if pregnant women give it to their babies.

Philadelphia reported the highest rate of STDs in 2022, followed closely by Memphis and Jackson, Mississippi

Researchers from Innerbody reported that rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are increasing at ‘worrying rates’ across the US

New Orleans, Louisiana, and St Louis, Missouri, rounded out the top five cities for STD rates.

Southern cities were disproportionately represented in the data, accounting for 17 out of the top 25 areas, which the researchers called ‘disturbing.’ 

Meanwhile, Provo, Utah, was the least rife with STDs, with about one in 300 residents being infected, which could be due to the area’s largely Mormon population, causing people to often have fewer sexual partners. 

Overall, the total rate per 100,000 was about 751 for 2022. This adds up to roughly 2.4 million infections, a slight decrease from 2.55 million last year. However, STD rates nationally have increased by 1.9 percent in the last five years.

And rates have increased by nearly 20 percent from 10 years ago, as there were 1.9 million total infections in 2014.  

Experts estimate that rates are on the upswing due to lifted Covid restrictions, the popularity of dating apps, and increase in IV drug use, and fewer gay men using condoms.  

The team from the Health research firm Innerbody, which did the research, said the new analysis marked the ‘first post-lockdown STD data,’ and the team noted that increasing trends show the data ‘isn’t reassuring.’

More than one-third of the cities had STD rates of over 1,000 infections per 100,000 people. 

The top 10 were: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; Jackson, Mississippi; New Orleans, Louisiana; St Louis, Missouri; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Montgomery, Alabama; San Francisco, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Washington, DC. 

The first-place city, Philadelphia, had 1,504 STD cases per 100,000 residents, which adds up to around one in 65 people. The city’s rates jumped dramatically from last year, when Philadelphia had the fifth-most STDs.  

Its over 1,500 STDs were made up of 618 HIV cases, 15,442 chlamydia cases, 10,854 gonorrhea cases, and 1,170 syphilis cases. 

‘As a result, it now leads all major metropolitan areas with the highest infection rates,’ Innerbody’s team wrote. 

Memphis’ rate of 1,498 per 100,000 was mainly taken up by chlamydia cases, with the Music City reporting 9,386 infections. Jackson has 1,490 cases per 100,000 people, while New Orleans had 1,450 per 100,000. St Louis rounded out the top five with 1,423 cases per 100,000. 

The rest of the top-five cities reported more chlamydia infections than any other type of STD.  

Though southern cities have taken up a large portion of the rankings, there were areas that improved from last year. Columbia, South Carolina, for instance, moved down to 21st place from third, and Charlotte, North Carolina, went from 13th to 28th in a year. 

The researchers noted that chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis are all surging, with rates having ‘risen back to pre-2020 levels,’ signaling that people are less isolated than during the pandemic. 

There were 710,000 new cases of gonorrhea and 1.6 million of chlamydia in 2022, while syphilis rates have risen by 28.6 percent in just a year. ‘

Additionally, rates of congenital syphilis – when the disease is transmitted from mother to baby in the womb – rose by over 30 percent, ‘constituting a tenfold increase in newborn syphilis cases over the span of a decade.’

‘These numbers mean that, since 2001, syphilis cases in our nation have increased 781 percent. Cases of congenital syphilis during that 20-year span rose by 464 percent,’ the researchers wrote. 

The team reported that California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Louisiana collectively accounted for nearly 60 percent of all reported syphilis cases.  

Experts have pointed to a slew of reasons for the uptick, including falls in condom use, fewer local sexual health clinics and rampant drug use. 

Provo, Utah, came in at the bottom of the list, with just 300 STD infections per 100,000 residents. The city of 113,000 reported 24 cases of HIV, 1,599 cases of chlamydia, 347 cases of gonorrhea, and just 21 cases of syphilis.