San Diego Has #1 Chlamydia Rate Among Major Western Cities

SAN DIEGO, CA — San Diego often appears on lists of the best cities in California or throughout the entire Western U.S. But the San Diego metro area has made the top of a list for a very unfortunate reason: A new study has found that chlamydia is more prevalent in the San Diego metro area than in any other major city in the West.

The study by At Home STD Kit.com found that residents of the San Diego metro area, which covers all of San Diego County and includes cities like Carlsbad, Chula Vista and Oceanside, were diagnosed with chlamydia at a rate of 656.5 per 100,000 in 2018. That’s the highest rate recorded for any major California metro area, and it’s the highest chlamydia rate among all major Western cities, including Las Vegas, Denver and Portland.

Nationally, rates of three common sexually transmitted diseases — chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis — have been on the rise, and the At Home STD Kit study analyzed the most recent data published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which covers a five-year period between 2014 and 2018 for each state and the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S.

In addition to having the state and region’s highest chlamydia rate, San Diego was ninth nationally for chlamydia, 30th for gonorrhea and 12th for primary and secondary syphilis. San Diego has also seen rates for all three STDs rise over the past half-decade: the chlamydia rate has risen by 36%, gonorrhea jumped by 76.8%, and primary and secondary syphilis climbed by 45.6%.

Other findings from the study include:

• The Memphis metro area, which includes counties in Tennessee and Arkansas, had the highest chlamydia rate, 931.2 per 100,000, as well as the highest gonorrhea rate, 404.8 per 100,000.
• Las Vegas, including the cities of Henderson and Paradise, had the highest rate of primary and secondary syphilis, 25.1 per 100,000.
• The national chlamydia rate in 2018 was 539.9 per 100,000, the gonorrhea rate was 179.1 per 100,000, and the primary and secondary syphilis rate was 10.8 per 100,000.
• Only four cities saw rates of any of the three STDs fall over the past five years (Louisville and San Antonio recorded drops in chlamydia, while Columbus and Minneapolis-St. Paul had declines in syphilis).

Here's a link to the complete study

https://www.athomestdkit.com/topics/san-diego-county-std-rates/