Buffalo, N.Y., posted the nation's second-highest increase in gonorrhea cases at a time when the STD is leveling off across the country, according to new data from the CDC. In Buffalo, gonorrhea cases were up 27.5 percent in 2000. Reasons for the increase vary from community to community. Gaps in available treatment and screening services, limited health care among some populations, and increases in riskier sexual behavior are all factors, suggested Dr. Ronald O. Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention.

Erie County health officials have noticed the rise in gonorrhea cases -- 2,409 in 2001 compared with 1,737 in 2000. But local officials were hard-pressed for solid answers Tuesday. One explanation may be the switch that occurred three years ago in the way Erie County tests for gonorrhea, said Dr. Anthony J. Billitier IV, county health commissioner. Billitier suggested that urine testing is more accurate and detects far more cases that culture testing. "Sometimes I wonder if it's not that we're making the public more aware of the consequences of risky sexual behavior, and they are coming in to be tested," said Cecelia Kohlmeier, coordinator for the county Health Department's STD/HIV clinic.

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