Study: Florida Cities With The Most STDs

Gonorrhea. Credit: CDC

MIAMI, Florida – Six Florida cities ranked in the top 100 list of U.S. cities with the most sexually transmitted diseases, according to a study released by Innerbody.com.

Miami ranked the highest among Florida cities at #16 nationally.

Fort Lauderdale ranked #23 closely followed by Tampa at #26.

Jacksonville came in at #60 followed by Pensacola at #63.

Daytona Beach ranked #92 on the list.

“The South, as defined by the Census Bureau, contributes a disproportionate number of metro areas to the upper portions of our rankings in our annual study ... Roughly 39% of our nation's population contributes over half of the 25 cities with the worst STD infection rates,” the study noted.

Chlamydia and gonorrhea on the rise as syphilis surges

New cases of gonorrhea (over 710,000 of them) and chlamydia (over 1.6 million) signal to the CDC that chlamydia rates have risen back to pre-2020 levels, while gonorrhea rates continue to increase across our cities; unlike chlamydia, confirmed cases of gonorrhea never slowed in 2020.

Meanwhile, syphilis rates have risen by a massive 28.6% since the last study. But the rise in the congenital syphilis rate nationally is even more staggering (30.5%), constituting a tenfold increase in newborn syphilis cases over the span of a decade. These numbers mean that, since 2001, syphilis cases across the U.S. have increased 781%. Cases of congenital syphilis during that 20-year span rose by 464%.

The findings were based on data released by the U.S. Center for Disease Control.