Prevalence of Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Pre and Post Covid Lockdown

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) are two of the most common Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) (Rowley et al., 2016) with almost 1.6 million CT cases reported in 2020 and an estimated 1.14 million NG cases yearly in the United States. The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic has infected ninety-six million Americans and caused over a million deaths (CDC). According to the American Society for Microbiology, focused efforts on SARS-Cov-2 had a negative impact on STD control measures. Further, Sars-COV-2 resulted in disruption of prevention and treatment to various infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, human HIV, and dengue fever (Downey et al., 2022). Restrictions due to the pandemic resulted in reduced routine STD testing. At the Oklahoma State University (OSU), regular STD testing is done in the OSU Clinical laboratory on the university campus in Tulsa. Test results were collected and analyzed to compare the prevalence of CT and NG cases, before and after the SARS-Cov-2 lockdown. We aimed to determine the impact pandemic lockdown protocols had on STD numbers, specifically CT and NG. Statistical analysis using an independent t-test and chi-squared test of independence showed that there was not a statistically significant (p > 0.05) difference in cases for CT when comparing pre- and post-lockdown measures for SARS-Cov-2. However, there was a statistically significant increase (p < 0.05) in NG rates when comparing pre-lockdown to post-lockdown. Future correlations can be done with data from recent months to further solidify the relationship that the pandemic has had on CT and NG numbers, and ultimately STD prevalence. This study explored the relationship SARS-Cov-2 lockdown measures had on CT and NG positivity rates. Our findings indicate the pandemic lockdown had an impact on NG rates potentially resulting from clinical service interruption due to the lockdown measures.