A2| Saturday/Sunday, October 19 - 20, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
U.S. NEWS
ted infections, and most—in-
cluding herpes and human
papillomavirus—aren’t “noti-
fiable,” meaning they aren’t
tracked by the government.
In addition, the handful of
STDs the government does
monitor are likely to be un-
dercounted because many
people, particularly those
who are asymptomatic, may
go undiagnosed.A
ccording to estimates
by the CDC, one in
four sexually active
adolescent girls has chla-
mydia or some other STD,
and up to 80% of all girls
and women who have chla-
mydia, a disease that can
cause infertility, show no
symptoms.
Based on the number of
reported cases, it’s the No. 1notifiable disease in the
country, and because of its
continuing prevalence, the
CDC considers it to be en-
demic.
But the agency regards
the recent surge in syphilis
and gonorrhea—the No. 2
notifiable disease—to be epi-
demic because, until re-
cently, they had been in de-
cline, with syphilis near
elimination.
“Something changed
starting around 2012,” said
Gail Bolan, director of the
CDC division of STD preven-
tion. “We’ve seen dramatic
increases each year in both
males and females.”
In 2000 and 2001, the na-
tional rate of reported pri-
mary and secondary syphilis
cases—the most infectious
stages of the disease—wasthe lowest it had been since
reporting began in 1941. But
by 2018, 35,063 new cases
had been recorded. The high-
est rate was among men
ages 25 to 29 with 55.7 cases
per 100,000 population. The
highest rate for women was
among those ages 20 to 24
with 10 cases per 100,000.
Transmission of syphilis
to women of childbearing
age is of particular concern
because the infection can
cause death, preterm birth
and physical and mental de-
velopmental disabilities.
In 2018, there were 1,
reported cases of congenital
syphilis acquired by a fetus
in utero. Sixteen infants
died, and 78 were stillborn.
Young men also had the
highest rates of gonorrhea
with 720.9 cases per 100,men ages 20 to 24 and 674
cases per 100,000 boys and
men ages 15 to 19.
But young women weren’t
far behind. Those ages 20 to
24 had 702.6 cases of gonor-
rhea per 100,000, and girls
and women ages 15 to 19 had
548.1 cases per 100,000.
Gonorrhea is worrisome
because it quickly develops
resistance to antibiotics.
More than half of the infec-
tions reported last year were
resistant to at least one anti-
biotic.T
he CDC attributes the
recent surge in STDs
to decreased condom
use, increased drug use, pov-
erty and cuts to prevention
programs run by state and
local health departments. In
recent years, the agency re-THE NUMBERS|By Jo Craven McGinty
The Young Are Having Less Sex, More STDs
It sounds
contradictory:
Young people,
we’re told, are
having less
sex than older
generations did at the same
age. But they’re also con-
tracting more sexually trans-
mitted diseases than any
other group, and the rates of
infection are accelerating at
an alarming pace.
Last year, combined cases
of syphilis, gonorrhea and
chlamydia reached a record
high with half of the re-
ported infections occurring
in adolescents and young
adults ages 15 to 24.
The reason for the in-
creases among younger peo-
ple is likely a combination of
factors, ranging from re-
duced access to health care
to riskier behavior among
those who are sexually ac-
tive.
The findings are part of
the annual Sexually Trans-
mitted Disease Surveillance
Report published last week
by the U.S. Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention.
Among all age groups,
chlamydia grew to more than
1.7 million cases in 2018, an
increase of 3% over the pre-
vious year. Gonorrhea rose
to more than 580,000 cases,
an increase of 5%. And syph-
ilis climbed to more than
115,000 cases, a 13.3% surge.
(The number of HIV diagno-
ses, which is tracked sepa-
rately, has been largely sta-
ble in recent years.)
It’s important to note that
the report reflects only a
portion of STDs occurring in
the U.S. There are at least 35
different sexually transmit-ports, more than half of local
STD programs have experi-
enced budget cuts that led to
clinic closures, as well as re-
duced screening and patient
follow-up.
Federal spending has also
been curtailed.
“In the federal govern-
ment, there is one dedicated
STD funding line, and that is
the line item in the appropri-
ation bill funding the divi-
sion of STD prevention at
the CDC,” said David Harvey,
executive director of the Na-
tional Coalition of STD Di-
rectors. “That appropriation
has been whittled away over
the last 18 years.”
That could soon change.
The latest House appro-
priations bill, if approved,
would increase spending on
STD prevention by $10 mil-
lion.
Separately, the U.S. De-
partment of Health and Hu-
man Services, which includes
the CDC, is developing what
it calls the nation’s first Sex-
ually Transmitted Infections
Federal Action Plan to ad-
dress and reverse the epi-
demic.
As for how younger peo-
ple are having less sex but
are acquiring more STDs, the
answer isn’t clear. It may be
that those who are sexually
active are engaging in riskier
behavior. It may have to do
with nonmonogamous part-
ners spreading infections
widely within their sexual
networks. It could have to do
with a lack of education and
reduced access to health
care.Oritcouldbeacombi-
nation of factors.
As they say on social me-
dia: It’s complicated.STDs on the Rise
Combined cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia reached an all-time high in the U.S. in 2018. The most prevalent was
chlamydia with more than 1.7 million reported cases.Chlamydia cases reported in 2018 per 100,000 population, U.S.N.J.Conn.Md.Del.R.I.D.C.450 500 550 600RATE(^14) 10–14 93
MALERATE AGEGROUP FEMALERATE
15–19 3,
4,
1,
750
364
177
66
19
2
959
1,
1,
651
370
217
115
42
7
20–
25–
30–
35–
40–
45–
55–
65+
Texas
Calif.
Mont.
Ariz.
Nev.
Idaho
Colo.
N.M.
Utah
Ore.
Wyo.
Ill.
Kan.
Neb. Iowa
S.D.
Fla.
Minn.
Okla.
N.D.
Wis.
Ala. Ga.
Mo.
Ark.
La.
N.Y.
Pa.
Ind.
Tenn. N.C.
Ky.
Mich.
Va.
Miss.
Ohio
S.C.
Maine
W.Va.
Vt.
N.H.
Mass.
Wash.
Hawaii
Alaska
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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An answerin the artificial-
intelligence quiz in Monday’s
Journal Report on AI is the
subject of disagreement by ex-
perts in the field. The quiz said
the first computer-controlled
autonomous vehicle was devel-
oped at the Stanford University
Artificial Intelligence Labora-
tory in 1979. Some AI pioneers
say the first such vehicle was
Shakey, a mobile robot devel-
oped at Stanford Research In-
stitute from 1966 to 1972.
The shareof women in C-
suites has climbed to 21% from
17% four years ago, according
to data from LeanIn.Org and
McKinsey & Co. The cover ar-
ticle in Tuesday’s Women in
the Workplace report incor-
rectly gave the time period as
five years.
Readers can alert The Wall Street Journal to any errors in news articles by
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CORRECTIONSAMPLIFICATIONS
U.S. WATCH
NASA
All-Female Space
Team Makes History
The world’s first all-female
spacewalking team made history
high above Earth on Friday, re-
placing a broken part of the in-
ternational space station’s power
grid.
As NASA astronauts Christina
Koch and Jessica Meir successfully
completed the job with wrenches,
screwdrivers and power-grip tools,
it marked the first time in a half-
century of spacewalking that men
weren’t part of the action. They
insisted they were just doing their
job after years of training, follow-
ing in the footsteps of women
who paved the way.
America’s first female space-
walker from 35 years ago, Kathy
Sullivan, was delighted. She said
it’s good to finally have enough
women in the astronaut corps
and trained for spacewalking for
this to happen.
“Hopefully, this will now be
considered normal,” said Tracy
Caldwell Dyson, a three-time
spacewalker who looked on from
Mission Control in Houston.
—Associated Press
ENERGY DEPARTMENT
Trump Picks Perry’s
Deputy for Post
President Trump said he in-
tends to nominate Deputy Energy
Secretary Dan Brouillette to suc-
ceed departing Energy Secretary
Rick Perry, who announced his
resignation Thursday amid grow-
ing scrutiny of his role in the pres-
ident’s interactions with Ukraine,
including a subpoena from the
House impeachment inquiry.
Mr. Trump, who met with Mr.
Brouillette on Friday, announced
the nomination via Twitter,
praising the Energy Depart-
ment’s No. 2 official as an indi-
vidual with “unparalleled” pri-
vate-sector experience.
Before joining the Energy De-
partment, Mr. Brouillette was an
executive and head of public pol-
icy for USAA, a military financial
services provider. He also worked
on Ford Motor Co.’s domestic pol-
icy team and has served as a
congressional staffer and at the
Energy Department in other roles.
Mr. Trump thanked Mr. Perry
for his “outstanding” service, and
called him a friend.
—Vivian Salama
cut at the October meeting—a
90% probability as of Friday,
according to CME Group—in
part because Fed officials have
done little to dispel those ex-
pectations.
“Our policy actions have
been very helpful to keeping
the economy on track and to
manage some of the risks we
were facing,” New York Fed
President John Williams told
reporters after a speech
Thursday. “Looking forward, I
think we just have to take this
same approach, this meeting-
by-meeting approach.”
Fed Vice Chairman Richard
Clarida echoed those views in
public remarks Friday, deliver-
ing the last word from the
central bank’s inner circle be-
fore the Fed’s customary pre-
meeting quiet period begins
Saturday.
If officials conclude they
should signal a possible time-
out from rate cuts, Fed Chair-
man Jerome Powell could dis-
appoint investors who have
come to expect additional cen-
ContinuedfromPageOne
tral-bank support.
“The risk is that even a bal-
anced message that avoids
sending a clear ‘we are done’
message results in a selloff” in
short-term bonds, sending in-
terest rates up and stock
prices down, said Jan Hatzius,
chief economist at Goldman
Sachs, in a report.
The Fed usually cuts inter-
est rates because bad things
are happening in the economy,
but sometimes it has cut rates
because the risk of troubling
developments has gone up—
similar to taking out an insur-
ance policy.
The challenge is judging
how much insurance is needed.
“You don’t know how long you
have to buy it, how much more
you have to buy,” said Vincent
Reinhart, a former senior Fed
economist who is now chief
economist at Mellon.
Mr. Powell has repeatedly
highlighted episodes in 1995
and 1998 when the Fed cut in-
terest rates three times and
avoided a recession. “The Fed
cut, and then cut again, and
then cut a third time,” he said
this month. “The economy
took that accommodation on
board and gathered steam
again, and the expansion con-
tinued. So that’s the spirit in
which we’re doing this.”
Dallas Fed President Robert
Kaplan said Friday he hoped
the current sequence of rate
cuts would be “modest, limited
and restrained” and not the
start of a “full-fledged rate-
cutting cycle.”
With another reduction in
October, officials could then
see whether this broad sce-
nario unfolds, allowing them
to stop cutting rates. Or if it
doesn’t, they could reduce
rates further.
“This is a fluid situation,”
said Mr. Kaplan, who described
himself as agnostic on a rate
cut this month. “This is a frag-
ile time where this could break
either way.”
One issue facing Fed offi-
cials is how to signal in their
postmeeting statement that
the threshold for additional
reductions would require
stronger evidence of deteriora-
tion.
One way Fed officials have
in the past signaled a possible
timeout from rate cuts was to
highlight the accumulation of
recent stimulus, though plans
to take a breather from cutting
rates don’t always work out.
In October 2007, for exam-
ple, Fed officials followed a
half-point cut in September
with another quarter-point
cut. They discouraged expecta-
tions of future cuts in their
postmeeting statement, but
the economy slid into reces-
sion one month later, trigger-
ing a more aggressive round of
rate reductions.
Since last month’s Fed
meeting, geopolitical risks
have neither receded nor in-
tensified. The U.S. and China
are attempting to reach a
trade truce ahead of a world
leader summit in Chile next
month. Britain and the Euro-
pean Union agreed Thursday
to new terms for the U.K.’s exit
from the bloc, which still re-
quires approval from U.K.’s
Parliament.
Meantime, surveys and
other economic data have
hinted that weakness in the
hard-hit manufacturing sector
isn’t lifting and might be
spreading to other parts of the
U.S. economy. But the Septem-
ber employment report
showed little obvious sign of a
collapse in hiring.
While global manufacturing
activity is slumping, Mr. Clar-
ida said Friday that he didn’t
see any evidence of shocks or
slowdowns “spilling into the
consumer.”
Chicago Fed President
Charles Evans said Wednesday
he saw some risk that the
economy will have difficulty
navigating uncertainties or
shocks. “There is an argument
for more accommodation now
to provide some further risk-
management buffer against
these potential events,” said
Mr. Evans.
—Michael S. Derby
contributed to this article.
Fed Weighs
When to
End Cuts
NASA/ASSOCIATED PRESS