Public health experts on Tuesday called for President Donald Trump to declare a public health emergency in the explosive rise of sexually transmitted diseases, which have increased nationally for four years in a row. Cases of
chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis rose by 200,000 between 2016 and 2017 alone, to a total of 2.29 million, according to preliminary data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. has the highest STD rates in the industrialized world, said David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, on a media conference call Tuesday. The current crisis preys on the most vulnerable in the population, he said, and costs the U.S. $16 billion in preventable health care costs a year.
Public health experts on the call blamed the skyrocketing STD rates on a serious decline in public health infrastructure and funding. The purchasing power of federal STD funding has diminished by 40 percent since 2003, they said.
“It is time that President Trump and [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Alex] Azar declare STDs in America a public health crisis,” Harvey said. “What goes along with that is emergency access to public health funding to make a dent in STD rates and to bring these rates down and make sure all Americans get access to the health care they need.”
Harvey estimated that $70 million in federal funding is needed immediately to fight the growing threat and that $270 million is needed for fiscal year 2019.
Health experts say we know how to stop sexually transmitted diseases. “We just don’t necessarily want to pay for it.”
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