Success with STIs Causes Complacency

(from the April 2020 ACP Internist)

Progress made in combating HIV has caused people to feel a greater sense of security around sex and less worry about bacterial sexually transmitted infections.

By Mollie Frost

In the world of infectious diseases, making progress against one pathogen sometimes means losing ground on another.

In 1990, the U.S. had its highest syphilis rate in 40 years, while HIV/AIDS incidence was entering its peak. Then, after the first protease inhibitor was approved in 1995, people living with HIV finally had a chance of survival. On the heels of that progress, the number of syphilis cases declined by 86% in 1998 to about 7,000 total cases, according to the CDC.

Read the full article in ACP Internist.

ACP Internist provides news and information for internists about the practice of medicine and reports on the policies, products, and activities of ACP.

Back to the May 2020 issue of ACP IMpact