Much to the worry of public health officials, new national data show that cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are climbing in the United States and have reached an all-time high.
A report released this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that though rates of these sexually transmitted diseases fluctuated over the last five years, all three spiked in 2014.
"America's worsening STD epidemic is a clear call for better diagnosis, treatment and prevention," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin , director of the CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention .
The new data also show that among the more than 3,000 counties in the nation, Los Angeles County had the most cases of all three diseases in 2014.
It has been of particular concern in California, where cases of congenital syphilis - in which a mother infects her child during pregnancy - surged between 2012 and 2014, with cases increasing from 30 to 100 .
