So, San Francisco is a regular hotbed of STDs, according to the Bay Area Reporter and the public health department, with cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia soaring in particular in 2011. The only good news is that chlamydia and syphilis didn't spread with quite the same wild abandon as they did in 2010.
According to new "unofficial" data from the public health department covering the last year in VD, chlamydia cases rose only 3% over a 2009 figure, which was a much smaller gain than the 10% jump seen in 2010. Syphilis might be getting under control, with a mere 3% bump there too, but gonorrhea is on the rise big time, with a double-digit bump in 2011.
Reported gonorrhea cases went from 1,943 in 2010 to 2,243 in 2011, an increase of 15.4 percent. In 2010 the STD section reported an increase of 8.6 percent.The number of rectal gonorrhea cases among men surged last year to 622 cases, a 38.2 percent increase over the 479 cases recorded in 2010. Two years ago the city saw a 6.3 percent year-to-year increase in such cases.
In the case of the gays, the bump might be attributable to serosorting, according to health officials, with HIV-positive men choosing other poz partners and having sex without condoms thus leading to the transmission of other diseases.
As for the straights, well, they like to go condom-free all the time.
