Public Health Nightmare: CDC Shuts STI Lab, Fires Its Scientists
Under RFK Jr.'s order, the Centers for Disease Control fired all employees of a lab studying STIs and drug resistance to existing treatments.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fired dozens of employees who worked at a lab specializing in research on sexually transmitted infections.
The lab has been completely shuttered, compromising the ability of the CDC to track rarer infections.
The lab employees were fired as part of a wave of 10,000 layoffs made at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempted reorganization of the federal agency, which involves consolidating departments within the agency and further shrinking the federal workforce to save money.
According to The New York Times, scientists did not have enough time to shut down the laboratories within the STI division before employees were locked out of their email systems and the building.
Equipment was allegedly left running, and hazardous materials were left unattended because of the lockout.
Specimens from state public health labs and clinical testing laboratories have continued to arrive at the agency this week, but there are no employees left to test those samples.
One official told the Times that the STI labs previously processed and analyzed around 12,000 samples each year.
While local labs can do a lot of testing for more common infections, only the CDC has the capacity to test for rarer forms of STIs.
For instance, the CDC developed the only test that can tell whether a gonorrhea infection will respond to existing treatments.
The STI labs play a key role in supporting state and local health departments, which have relied on the CDC as a “reference laboratory” that tests samples of sexually transmitted infections, analyzes the genetic information for signs of drug resistance, and tracks and investigates outbreaks.
In one recent example, state health officials in Massachusetts worked with the CDC’s STI lab to investigate a new strain of drug-resistant gonorrhea.
The lab staff also has established protocols for other labs to adopt when testing for sexually transmitted infections.
“Whoever got rid of the lab just doesn’t understand how important the lab is,” one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper.
The closure of the STI labs comes at an inopportune time, when rates of sexually transmitted infections are on the rise.
According to the most recent statistics available, more than 2.4 million new infections were diagnosed in 2023.
About 600,000 new gonorrhea cases were diagnosed in 2023. But drug-resistant gonorrhea has become more troublesome in recent years, and, by shuttering the CDC’s lab, the Trump administration is potentially making it harder to combat the disease.
Currently, there is only one remaining treatment that can still cure gonorrhea, but scientists are worried that the disease may mutate and develop resistance to that treatment.
In an effort to combat other STIs like syphilis and chlamydia, the CDC recommended last year that gay and bisexual men, as well as transgender women, take the antibiotic doxycycline as a form of post-exposure prophylaxis, also known as doxy-PEP.
That has led to decreased infection rates, especially in cities where health practitioners have pushed the practice as a practical health measure.
However, some researchers are worried that the widespread use of doxycycline may increase resistance to an entire class of antibiotics known as tetracylines.
The CDC lab, were it still operational, could have helped monitor potential drug resistance and alert health officials about trends that could pose a threat to groups at higher risk of infection.
As a scientist who led a CBS-funded lab told the New York Times, “We cannot have a national surveillance system without a national lab.”
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.