Low point in testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea seen in early April 2020, raising the possibility of many missed cases<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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THURSDAY, June 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Screening and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) decreased in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting the potential for a future surge in cases, according to a study published May 19 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n Casey N. Pinto, Ph.D., M.P.H., from Pennsylvania State University in Hershey, and colleagues assessed U.S. chlamydia and gonorrhea testing and positivity using data from a national reference clinical laboratory (January 2019 through June 2020). The analysis included 13.6 million tests for female patients and 4.7 million tests for male patients aged 14 to 49 years.<\/p>\n The researchers found that chlamydia and gonorrhea testing reached a low point in early April 2020, with decreases (relative to the baseline level) of 59 percent for female patients and 63 percent for male patients. There was a strong association between declines in testing and increases in weekly positivity rates for chlamydia (R2<\/sup> = 0.96) and gonorrhea (R2<\/sup> = 0.85). It was estimated that 27,659 chlamydia cases (26.4 percent) and 5,577 gonorrhea cases (16.5 percent) were potentially missed from March 2020 through June 2020.<\/p>\n “The quickest way for people to spread STIs is to not know that they have one,” Pinto said in a statement. “The inability to detect asymptomatic cases could have negative repercussions for years to come.”<\/p>\n Several authors report financial ties to Quest Diagnostics, which supplied the data for the study.<\/p>\n