State sees spike in gonorrhea complications
Doctors across California are reporting an unusual jump in painful symptoms from a very treatable disease: gonorrhea.
If left alone, the sexually transmitted pathogen can enter the bloodstream and cause painful infections that typically hit joints but may also move to heart valves or to the fluid around the brain. Some complications are permanent. Untreated, gonorrhea can also be fatal, although California doctors have not reported deaths.
Instead, state public health officials have been surprised in recent months to see a spike in complications from gonorrhea — mainly swollen and painful joints — because the infection is easily treated with antibiotics. But the experts suspect that people are avoiding treatment and routine screenings because of the pandemic.
“I am very concerned that we are seeing completely preventable complications of sexually transmitted disease infections that went undiagnosed and untreated,” said Dr. Erica Pan, acting state public health officer. “STD
risk has not gone away.”
Pan urged certain groups to immediately get tested for STDs, even if they have no symptoms: pregnant women, sexually active women up to age 25, men who have sex with men and people with HIV.
Those with symptoms should also be tested right away, Pan said.
Across the country, about 1.14 million cases of gonorrhea are diagnosed each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About half of those cases occur in people ages 15 to 24.
The state health department is encouraging medical providers not only to familiarize themselves with all STDs, but also to routinely test patients for gonorrhea, HIV, hepatitis C and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Health officials are also reminding people that athome tests for STDs and HIV are newly available.