Why Are Gonorrhea Case Rates Declining in the United States? a Research Agenda.

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2026, v. 82, no. 6: Why Are Gonorrhea Case Rates Declining in the United States? a Research Agenda.
• Journal Article:
  Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America
• Personal Author:
  Oliveira Roster, Kirstin I. ; White, Peter J. ; Grad, Yonatan H.
• Description:
  After nearly a decade of rising gonorrhea rates, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a decline in infection rates for 2 years in a row in 2022 and 2023, especially among young adults. While this warrants cautious optimism that control measures have been successful, the reasons for the decline are unknown. We do not know what lessons can be learned about the 4CMenB vaccine with partial protection against gonorrhea, doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP), asymptomatic screening, sexual behavior, or other possible drivers. Here, we enumerate potential drivers of the decline in gonorrhea, the evidence that argues for or against each one, and the data needed to clarify their roles. We hope to encourage those with suitable data to perform the analyses we outline, for surveillance systems to provide more detailed data where possible, and for existing and new surveillance and research studies to collect additional data.
• Content Notes:
  Author manuscript
• Subjects:
  • Humans
  • Gonorrhea
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S.
  • Post-Exposure Prophylaxis
  • Sexual Behavior
  • Mass Screening
  • Doxycycline
  • Female
• Keywords:
  • gonorrhea
  • epidemic trends
  • menB vaccine
  • doxy-PEP
  • asymptomatic screening
  • sexual behavior
• Source:
  Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2026, v. 82, no. 6
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaf690
• ISSN:
  1058-4838 ; 1537-6591
• Pubmed ID:
  41406984
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC12817202
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  HHSD200201691779I/CC/CDC HHSUnited States/ ; MR/X020258/1/UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis/ ; Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking/ ; National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Health Analytics and Modelling/ ; UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)/ ; London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)/ ; NIHR207404/Imperial College London/ ; NIHR HPRU in Modelling and Health Economics/ ; UKHSA/ ; NIHR200908/LSHTM/ ; 200-2016-91779/LSHTM/
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  1082-1090 (18 pdf pages)
• Volume:
  82
• Issue:
  6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/260892/cdc_260892_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 789.76 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e761e1ea3970e1e8e3b29fa66946ed140f2dcb315728b31a65f7b3ef132ee760093acfa9a0135d63dd74cbdd5aab17c1bf44e87b4ec22ecc292b7e3df35837dc