Washington, D.C., Wins V.D. Triple Crown--Leads Nation in Syphilis, Gonorrhea and Chlamydia Rates

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
By Pete Winn, Senior Writer/Editor



(CNSNews.com) – Washington, D.C., had the dubious distinction of beating all 50 states to post the highest rates in the nation for the sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

The District of Columbia had a Chlamydia rate of 1,177 cases per 100,000 people--almost three times the rate of its neighbors, Virginia (405) and Maryland (439).

Mississippi was a distant second, at 728 cases per 100,000 people.

By comparison, California’s rate was 407 cases per 100,000; New York came in at 458; New Mexico at 470; Utah at 377 and Maine’s rate was a mere 198 per 100,000.

For gonorrhea, D.C.’s rate was 451.5 cases per 100,000--almost twice that of second-ranking Mississippi (256.8); more than three times the rate of its neighbors Virginia (134) and Maryland (118); more than 13 times the rate of Oregon (32.5) and more than 25 times the rate of Utah (18).

Other state rates for gonorrhea include: 160.9 for Illinois; 134 for Texas and 88.7 for New York.

D.C.’s nation-leading syphilis rate of 24.8 cases (including both primary and secondary syphilis) per 100,000 dwarfed second-place Louisiana's 16.5 per 100,000 rate and third-place Alabama’s rate of 9.7 per 100,000. It and was nearly four times the rate of Maryland (6.7).

By comparison, the syphilis rate was 6.3 per 100,000 for New York; 6.0 for California; 4.3 for Illinois; 3.4 for Virginia and 0.05 for Iowa.

The CDC report is based on 2007 surveillance statistics, updated in 2008 and released Monday.

* A footnote to the report indicated that the Washington D.C. rates were probably skewed to the high side due to the abnormally high proportion of lawyers in the city's population compared to other surveyed cities.

** The CDC also predicted "a very high probability" of a nation-wide pandemic, due to the combination of the high STD rate in the capitol and the congress' propensity to screw the citizens as often as possible.