Medicine: VD Up

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Penicillin cut the U.S. syphilis rate from 234.7 cases in each 100,000 population in 1948 to only 68.5 in 1958, the gonorrhea rate from 252 to 129.3. Unfortunately, the public's old terror of venereal disease gave way to overconfidence, a one-third cut in VD-control funds. The rate of VD decline began to level off five years ago, by last year seemed ready to rise again.

Last week the American Social Health Association and two other national health organizations, tallying up figures for fiscal 1959, reported a general VD rise in 29 U.S. states and 49 major cities. For the country as a whole, the syphilis rate was up 1.2%, gonorrhea up 6.3%. In a pattern that threatens faster rises in the near future, health officers found 22.8% more cases of syphilis in its early infectious stages.

An age-group breakdown has not yet been made on the 1959 figures, but health officers generally agreed on who are the major victims of the rise: teen-agers living in big cities. New York City reported that syphilis increased 78.3% among its 15-to-19-year-olds.