A Federal Lab That Tracked Rising S.T.I.s Has Been Shuttered

Drug-resistant gonorrhea, a form of the widespread sexually transmitted infection, is considered an worldwide. The United States has just lost its ability to detect it. Among the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees fired on Tuesday were 77 scientists who, among other work, gathered samples of gonorrhea and other S.

T.I.s from labs nationwide, analyzed the genetic information for signs of drug resistance, and readied the samples for storage at a secure facility.



No other researchers at the agency have the expertise, or the software, to continue this work. The abrupt halt has stranded about 1,000 samples of gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted pathogens that had not yet been processed, and perhaps dozens more headed to the agency. There are as many as 30 freezers full of samples that now have no custodians, said one senior C.

D.C. official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

“We were just really shut down midair, like there was no warning,” the official said. “It was just completely unplanned and chaotic.” The C.

D.C.’s work on S.

T.I.s had taken on greater urgency in the past few years as rates of new infections soared.

More than 2.4 million new S.T.

I.s were diagnosed in 2023, about than 20 years ago. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

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