CDC's top laboratory on STDs is shut by Trump administration
a year ago
- #STDs
- #CDC
- #public health
- The U.S. government has closed the CDC's premier STD lab, firing all 28 full-time employees.
- The lab was crucial for monitoring drug resistance in STDs, including gonorrhea, which is down to one effective drug.
- Experts fear the closure will hinder efforts to track and treat drug-resistant STDs, leaving the U.S. 'blind' to emerging threats.
- The lab's closure comes as gonorrhea shows signs of resistance to the last reliable treatment, ceftriaxone.
- The lab also led national surveillance for STD resistance patterns and housed the world's largest repository of gonorrhea isolates.
- New drugs for gonorrhea are nearing approval, but without the lab, there will be no national system to monitor resistance to them.
- The closure coincides with the rollout of a new preventive approach, doxy PEP, which could drive antibiotic resistance without proper monitoring.
- Experts criticize the decision as shortsighted, warning it will set back efforts to control STDs and respond to public health threats.