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Sunday 05.02.2012

Gonorrhea rate doubles in Alaska

Two-thirds of cases occurred in Alaska Natives.

Alaska health officials are concerned that Alaska gonorrhea rates, which held steady for years, suddenly jumped by 69 per cent in 2009 -- the biggest one-year rise since the 1970s, reports the Anchorage Daily News.

There were 997 cases reported last year, for a rate of 144 cases per 100,000 people. In 2008, the rate was 85 per 100,000 people.



Alaska Natives and people living in southwest Alaska have the highest rates, according to the new numbers. Two-thirds of cases occurred in Alaska Natives.

But the epidemic is almost statewide, with every area except interior Alaska experiencing a rise.

The state Division of Public Health published a bulletin Tuesday to get the word out, the ADN reports.

Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and failed pregnancies in women, eye infections in newborns, and infections in men.

Women generally have fewer symptoms than men.

The rate for Alaska Natives in Anchorage and Mat-Su is high, about the same as the rate for all residents of Southwest Alaska, which includes the Bethel region.

State records show gonorrhea rates rose first in Southwest Alaska. While the state as a whole had stable rates in 2007 and 2008, the gonorrhea incidence more than tripled in the Southwest.