Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Thursday, October 17, 1996.
Tara Meyer, Associated Press Writer
Gonorrhea and AIDS came in second and third on the annual list, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"There were not a lot of surprises here," said Dr. Denise Koo, a CDC medical epidemiologist. "But I think it backs up our message about safe sex. People need to be careful about their sexual activity."
In 1995, there were 477,638 reported cases of chlamydia, a parasite that often has no symptoms but, if left untreated, can lead to infertility and tubal pregnancies. This is the first year state epidemiologists decided to include it in the national report.
Gonorrhea, the most commonly reported disease in 1994, fell to the No. 2 spot with 392,848 cases in the United States last year, compared to 418,068 cases in 1994.
AIDS, No. 2 last year, also dropped with 71,547 cases reported in 1995, compared with 78,279 cases the year before, the report said.
Those three, plus syphilis and hepatitis B, accounted for 87 percent of the total number of cases caused by the top 10 maladies, the report said.
Chlamydia was more commonly reported among women, striking 383,956 last year, while gonorrhea and AIDS were reported more by men, with 203,563 and 58,007 cases respectively.
"AIDS has, from the beginning, been more commonly reported among men so that is not a large surprise," Ms. Koo said.
Salmonella poisoning and a painful bowel infection called shigellosis were the most common germs infecting children younger than 5. Tuberculosis was tops among those 65 and older.
There were racial disparities as well, although these may be skewed because of the reporting process. Blacks reported 240,887 cases of gonorrhea, about five times as many as whites, and 13,974 cases of syphilis, almost nine times as many as whites.
Bill Levine, a CDC expert on sexually transmitted diseases, attributed much of the disparity to the fact that blacks often seek health care at public clinics, which are traditionally better at reporting to the CDC than private-sector facilities.
"We believe there is a difference here, but it is magnified," Levine said. "The actual rates are not nearly as great as reflected."
The CDC's annual report relies on numbers compiled by epidemiologists in each state. Each year, they decide which diseases to track and this year settled on a list of 52.
The epidemiologists look at the number of cases linked to each disease, its severity, and whether or not it's a new disease health officials want to know more about. AIDS, for example, has been tracked nationwide since it began to emerge in 1984.
But the flu, which states track voluntarily, is not on the list. Its symptoms often mimic those of other diseases so numbers aren't as conclusive, Ms. Koo said.
"People often get better and don't get treated for it," she said.
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