Epidemiology

The World Health Organization estimates that 88 million cases of gonorrhea occur
each year, out of the 448 million new cases of all curable STI each year � that
also includes syphilis, chlamydia and trichomoniasis.[8] In 2013, it caused about
3,200 deaths, up from 2,300 in 1990.[53]

In the United Kingdom, 196 per 100,000 males 20 to 24 years old and 133 per 100,000
females 16 to 19 years old were diagnosed in 2005.[11] In 2013, the CDC estimated
that more than 820,000 people in the United States get a new gonorrheal infection
each year. Fewer than half of these infections are reported to CDC. In 2011,
321,849 cases of gonorrhea were reported to the CDC. After the implementation of a
national gonorrhea control program in the mid-1970s, the national gonorrhea rate
declined from 1975 to 1997. After a small increase in 1998, the gonorrhea rate has
decreased slightly since 1999. In 2004, the rate of reported gonorrheal infections
was 113. 5 per 100,000 persons.[54]

In the US, it is the second-most-common bacterial sexually transmitted infections;

chlamydia remains first.[55][56] According to the CDC African Americans are most
affected by gonorrhea, accounting for 69% of all gonorrhea cases in 2010.[57]

The World Health Organization warned in 2017 of the spread of untreatable strains
of gonorrhea, following analysis of at least three cases in Japan, France and
Spain, which survived all antibiotic treatment.[58]