Chlamydia, Gonorrhea Puts NYC Men At Higher Risk For HIV: Report

NEW YORK, NY — Gonorrhea and chlamydia can put New York City's gay and bisexual men at a higher risk of getting the virus that causes AIDS, the city's Department of Health found in a report published Friday. Officials warned doctors to regularly screen men who have sex with men for the two sexually transmitted infections, which have been steadily on the rise in recent years.

"With STI rates increasing in the City and nationally, it is so important that everyone gets screened and know their status," Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett said in a statement. "New Yorkers should find health care providers who are knowledgeable about their sexual health as well as HIV and other STI prevention services that they need."

Reported cases of rectal gonorrhea and chlamydia among men who have sex with men have increased from just over 1,000 in 2011 to more than 7,000 in 2016, the health department's report shows. The spike reflects a rise in the number of doctors and laboratories testing for the diseases, as well as a potential increase in the number of people carrying them, officials said.

One in every 15 men in the city diagnosed with one or both of the infections was diagnosed with HIV within a year, the report found. The rate was highest for African-American men at one in seven, or 15 percent — five times the rate for white men.

Relatively few health care providers are reporting cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea among men without HIV, the report shows. Just 118 facilities in the five boroughs reported such diagnoses in 2015, while more than 1,700 reported cases of the diseases in young women.

Men who have sex with men are already hit hardest by HIV — they account for nearly three quarters of all new cases of the virus in New York City each year, the report says.

The Department of Health urged doctors to test for gonorrhea and chlamydia among those men to prevent even more cases of HIV. The city's eight Sexual Health Clinics offer free or low-cost screenings for sexually transmitted infections as well as free condoms, which can prevent those diseases.

(Lead image: A molecule of gonorrhea through a microscope. Photo by Evgeniy Kalinovskiy/Shutterstock)