Reports of some sexually transmitted infections among New Yorkers increased in 2021 compared to the year before, according to a report released on Friday by the city’s health department.
Health officials attributed the uptick to lapses in STI testing during the first years of the pandemic. As a result, they’re urging New Yorkers to get tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis and other STIs — and are even repurposing lab equipment originally used for COVID-19 tests for chlamydia and gonorrhea screenings.
“Whether it’s a fling or a serious thing, STI tests are recommended for all New Yorkers,” said Dr. Ashwin Vasan, the city’s health commissioner. “Less wait time means less stress. Our rapid tests help New Yorkers stay safe. Get tested today.”
The report found that rates of chlamydia, a common STI that can affect fertility if left untreated, rose about 13% among male New Yorkers and 5% among female New Yorkers. Gonorrhea, which is often asymptomatic, followed similar trends. (The data only distinguished results by biological sex, not by gender identity.)
Girls and women younger than 24 had the highest rates of chlamydia in 2021, the report found. About a quarter of all the reported chlamydia cases that year were among teen girls.
The pattern with syphilis, an STI that can be transmitted to unborn babies if contracted during pregnancy, was more complex. The overall rate of symptomatic syphilis ticked down slightly, but rose among female New Yorkers. There were 24 recorded cases of syphilis passed on to babies, up from 17 the year before.
The STI rates reflected disparities in access to health care. Low-income neighborhoods had more than double the rates of gonorrhea and chlamydia found among their wealthier counterparts, and symptomatic syphilis was three times more common among Black New Yorkers than among white New Yorkers.
Joseph Osmundson, an LGBTQ health advocate and biology professor at NYU, said the results underscore the importance of sexual health care services, particularly for the most marginalized New Yorkers.
“The more people are in routine care, the more you can manage infections and keep rates relatively low,” he explained.
Conversely, Osmundson said, when people don’t have access to a sexual health clinic in their neighborhood, they risk spreading STIs to their partners, particularly if they’re asymptomatic.
“You could be spreading that [STI] throughout every sexual encounter you have without knowing it at all,” he said.
The city operates five sexual health clinics throughout the city that offer STI testing and care, contraception and other medical services. There are also two express clinics and a mobile van that offer testing services only. An additional three clinics, located in Crown Heights, Harlem and the Upper West Side, closed due to COVID-19 and have yet to restart services. Health officials told Gothamist earlier this year that staffing shortages have kept the clinics shuttered even as the rest of the city reopened.
The news comes just days after a Texas judge ruled against a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, threatening the guarantee that insurers cover HIV screenings and other preventive health care at no cost to patients. The decision will likely be appealed, experts told the Associated Press.
