New Hampshire reports gonorrhea outbreak after ‘significant’ spike in cases

New Hampshire is amid a gonorrhea outbreak after seeing a sharp spike in cases in 2016, state health officials said.

The state, which had the lowest incidence of gonorrhea in the country in 2015, saw 465 new cases last year, according to the Division of Public Health Services. That is a more than 250% increase from an average of approximately 130 cases of gonorrhea reported in the years between 2007 and 2013.

It was an approximately 90% increase from the 245 cases of gonorrhea in New Hampshire that were reported to the CDC in 2015 — an incidence rate of just 18.5 infections per 100,000 population.

“New Hampshire historically has had one of the lowest rates of gonorrhea infections in the country; however, over the last year we have seen a significant increase in the number of reported cases,” Benjamin Chan, MD, New Hampshire state epidemiologist, said in a statement. “We are actively working to identify individuals who may have been exposed to gonorrhea in order to connect them with testing and treatment. We are also asking health care providers and patients with gonorrhea to help connect sex partners with medical care for evaluation and treatment of gonorrhea infection.”

Like New Hampshire, the U.S. is experiencing a surge in STDs that health officials have said is partly due to budget cuts in state and local health departments. The CDC announced in October that a record number of cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in the U.S. in 2015 — nearly 2 million infections in all.

When left untreated, gonorrhea can cause serious and permanent health problems in male and female patients, including pelvic inflammatory disease in women, according to the CDC. It is the second most commonly reported STD in the U.S. behind chlamydia.

Gonorrhea is also becoming harder to treat, having developed resistance to many of the drugs prescribed to treat it. Of particular concern, experts around the world have reported strains of gonorrhea that show reduced susceptibility to last effective cures, including one in Hawaii. – by Gerard Gallagher

Disclosures: Chan works for the state of New Hampshire.