FIGURE 1—

Number of Cases of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) Among Men Who Have Sex With Men (MSM): King County, WA, 2016

Note. The rising STI rates reported as an extension of previous trends when earlier data are included. A 2016 commentary by Alaei et al.² presented STI incidence data from 2013–2016 to implicate preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake in the rising rates of STIs among MSM in King County, WA. STI rates increased between 2013 and 2016, but rates have been rising since 1997, with a pattern of accelerated growth beginning in 2008, 4 years before the approval of PrEP by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Source. Reproduced from the 2013 King County Sexually Transmitted Diseases Epidemiology Report, with subsequent extrapolated data points obtained from the 2015 and 2016 fourth quarter reports (http://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/communicable-diseases/hiv-std/patients/epidemiology.aspx).