583,405 cases of gonorrhea were reported to the CDC in 2018, and there were 616,392 reported cases in 2019. The actual number of cases is expected to be considerably higher with an estimated incidence (new infections) in 2018 of 1.6 million.
More than half of all infections were estimated to be resistant to at least one antibiotic in 2019.
Gonorrhea infections were estimated to have a direct medical cost to the US healthcare system of $271 million in 2018. However, this direct medical cost is far lower than the total cost associated with gonorrhea, as it does not include costs associated with lost productivity, other non-medical costs, and STI prevention.