The Surprising Way One State Is Fighting Gonorrhea

For the study, which was published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, scientists analyzed the number of cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea reported to the U.S. National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System between January 2003 and December 2012. Gonorrhea rates went way down (though there was no change in chlamydia rates).

As a result, researchers wrote, “Alcohol tax increases may be an efficient strategy for reducing sexually transmitted infections.”

Previous research has found that jacking up alcohol taxes decreases how much alcohol people drink. And when people drink less, they tend to have safer sex (which then typically lowers their risk of contracting an STD).

That’s good news given that the Centers for Disease Control’s 2014 STD Surveillance Report, which was released in November, showed that STD rates are going up in the U.S. According to the report, chlamydia cases are up 2.8 percent since 2013, gonorrhea cases are up 5.1 percent, and syphilis cases are up 15.1 percent.

“Alcohol tax increases may be an efficient strategy for reducing sexually transmitted infections.”

Researchers who worked on the latest study told the Baltimore Sun that they looked to see if there were any other reasons the gonorrhea rates could have changed so dramatically and didn’t find any new statewide health programs or initiatives that could have explained it. They also looked at historical STD data for Maryland and didn’t notice any fluctuations that would explain it.

As for why chlamydia rates didn’t go down, scientists say in the study that gonorrhea cases are usually more geographically concentrated and pop up more in higher-risk populations (for instance, places where people have several partners at the same time). They also note that people who have chlamydia are more likely to be asymptomatic and are less likely to get tested for it.

While the new findings are interesting, they don’t exactly prove that alcohol tax increases cause lower STD rates—just that there’s a link.

Still…fascinating.