In an era of ongoing disasters and emergencies, this is one problem that many of us probably hoped was mostly in our rearview mirror by this point, but apparently not. It turns out that we have recently seen a serious, significant comeback in sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States. But it's not uniform in the demographics where it is showing up and it doesn't apply to all STDs equally. The CDC is reporting sharp spikes in chlamydia and Hepatitis C, but the largest rise has been in syphilis. And the age group most likely to become infected is 55 years of age and older. There must be more to the explanation of this than meets the eye. (Fox News)

Sexually transmitted disease rates have risen sharply in a certain age group – and which group it is may surprise you.

The CDC's latest statistics on STDs in the U.S. show that chlamydia, Hepatitis C, and syphilis were among the diseases that have been infecting Americans aged 55 and older at an alarming rate. The statistics, which are as recent as 2022, show how STD rates have skyrocketed since 2000.

In 2022, there were 5,160 reported cases of primary and secondary syphilis in adults aged 55 and older – a sharp increase from 3,092 in 2020. In 2012, there were only 712 cases.

Syphilis is one of those diseases that we really seemed to have largely defeated in the second half of the twentieth century. It's a horrible disease that typically resulted in a long, agonizing death until we developed effective treatments for it. (Just ask Al Capone or the Black victims of the government's secret Tuskeegii Syphilis Experiments in previous decades.) But after we developed penicillin, we were able to get the situation under control for the most part, though it was never fully eradicated. For example, by 2012, there were barely 700 cases of syphilis in Americans 55 and older. In 2022 there were more than 5,000.

So what explains these shifting tides? Could it have something to do with geographical location? The CDC is saying that the largest number of cases of some STDs currently is in Florida. California, Texas, New York, and Georgia rounded out the top five. So this isn't another red state/blue state situation. But those are all some of our most populous states with high concentrations of senior citizens.

The numbers have been ramping up significantly since 2010, though they tapered off in 2020 and 2021. That was likely because of the pandemic lockdowns and not as many people "hooking up." But now they are climbing again. And why is the 55+ contingent being hit so hard? They tend to be the more cautious and conservative among us. One doctor told NBC News that he suspected it was because of "how they were taught about sex education in school." That simply sounds nonsensical. The people in question finished school more than three decades ago, far longer in many cases. This is something recent.

We still don't have an FDA-approved vaccine against syphilis, though work is in progress. So this isn't another "pandemic of the unvaccinated." But we do have millions of new people coming into the mix, many of whom come from places with little in the way of not only vaccinations but health care of any kind. An alarming number of them, particularly among women, wind up in either prostitution or falling into sex trafficking. Could that be a factor? It's hard to rule it out. Either way, if you aren't in a stable, monogamous relationship, you need to be careful out there. And if you have any questions or issues, see a doctor immediately. Syphilis can be treated, and we've made great progress in most of the rest of the STDs as well.