Intermedia Blog » STIs/STDs

Illinois Adopts STD “Shortcut” Treatment

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:46:07 +0000

Illinois joins a growing number of states to adopt the sensible policy of “fast-tracking” STD treatment:

These laws allow a health care provider to write a prescription for medicine to treat the partner of a person who has tested positive for an STD like chlamydia or gonorrhea. So: Bob goes to the doctor and tests positive for an STD. Bob gets a prescription or medicine to treat the STD, and the doctor also writes a prescription or gives Bob enough additional medicine to treat Bob’s partner or partners without the doctor having to see them also.

Bob’s chances of re-infection are lowered, and the partner(s) is less likely to spread the STD to someone else. Just an aside: Let’s hope this also comes with some counseling on using condoms to reduce the future risk of getting an STD.

STIs Increasing in Urban Teens

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:33:11 +0000

Here’s a report we found on the National Partnership for Women and Families website.

Half of female urban teens ages 14 through 17 contracted chlamydia, gonorrhea or trichomoniasis within two years of having sex for the first time, according to a new study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Reuters reports. Researchers followed 386 teen girls for up to eight years. Within one year of having sex for the first time, 25% had their first chlamydia infection (Brooks, Reuters, 12/7). Within six months of being diagnosed, 25% of participants with prior infections were reinfected, the study found.

Following previous posts, about the growing STI issue and the cuts in funding, let’s hope that funding is increased for prevention education and treatment.

STD Funding Shrinks

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:01:45 +0000

Yesterday, we had a post about the latest report by the Centers for Disease Control about the prevalence of STDs in the United States.

On RHrealtiycheck.org, we found an interesting commentary by Dr. Will Wong, a board member of National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD). Dr. Wong discusses how funding for STD prevention and treatment has been getting smaller and smaller.

So earlier this year NCSD set out to conduct a study on how the budget cuts were affecting the operation of programs that are designed to prevent, diagnose, and treat STDs. Our survey of states, large U.S. cities, and the territories is as equally sobering as the scale of the STD epidemic itself.

Our research found:

● 69 percent of STD programs experienced funding cuts from 2008 to 2009;

● 39 clinics supported by state and local STD programs closed due to lack of funding over the past year;

● 20 percent of the frontline STD program workforce – known as Disease Intervention Specialists – have disappeared over the past decade, and;

● 69 percent of STD programs supported by state and local dollars have experienced salary freezes and 29% have experiences layoffs.

In other words, the burden of STDs is becoming worse in this country at the same time that the resources we need to fight these illnesses continue to shrink. None of this bodes well for the future health of our nation and our communities.

It’s obvious there is a correlation between the growing STD problem and the dwindling funding. I wonder if the politicians are paying attention?

New STD Report: Young Women Most Vulnerable

admin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:34:56 +0000

A new report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) looks at the rising rates of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in the United States. While the report shows there are approximately 19 million new STD infections each year, the highest risk group for contracting STDs are young women between the ages of 15 and 24:

In 2008, there were more than 1.5 million total cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea reported to CDC — making them the two most commonly reported infectious diseases in the United States. Adolescent girls and young women are especially hard hit by these two diseases. The largest number of reported cases of both chlamydia and gonorrhea in 2008 was among girls between 15 and 19 years of age, followed closely by young women 20 to 24 years of age. This likely reflects a combination of factors, including biological differences that place females at greater risk for STDs than males, as well as higher STD screening rates among young women.

Syphilis — a disease once on the verge of elimination — began re-emerging as a public health threat in 2001. This is primarily because of a resurgence of the disease among men who have sex with men (MSM), though cases among women have also been increasing in recent years.
STDs and Infertility

Untreated STDs can lead to serious long-term health consequences, especially for adolescent girls and young women. CDC estimates that undiagnosed and untreated STDs cause at least 24,000 women in the United States each year to become infertile.3

Expanded access to STD prevention services, screening, and treatment is urgently needed to reduce the toll of STDs and protect the health of millions of Americans.
Racial Disparities

Racial minorities continue to face severe disparities across all three reportable STDs. While racial disparities persist overall, African-Americans, especially young African-American women, are the most heavily affected. Young African-American women face significantly higher rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea than any other group, while the highest rates of syphilis are among African-American men.

Link to PDF Factsheet

STI Education and Testing in the News

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:21:24 +0000

Because of rising Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) rates, some local governments are planning on instituting some new policies. From The Daily Women’s Health Report:

Washington, D.C., officials are planning to make testing for sexually transmitted infections available at all public high schools in the coming school year, adding D.C. to a growing list of cities that test students for STIs….

he new program requires all students to attend a lecture about STIs, after which they are escorted into restroom areas in groups of 15 to 20. They are then given paper bags with urine collection cups and go into the stalls, at which point they can decide whether to provide a sample. All students return the paper bags, regardless of whether they provided samples. Students give a password and can call a week later to receive their confidential results and, if necessary, treatment at the school or an STI clinic, which is paid for by the city. The district first offered the program two years ago at two charter schools, and eight high schools were included during the past school year.

Also from The Women’s Health Report, news from Boston:

Boston’s health agency on Tuesday is scheduled to launch a safer-sex campaign that reaches out to teenagers through Web sites such as Facebook and YouTube, the Boston Globe reports. The campaign was created in response to rising rates of sexually transmitted infections among young people in the city, according to the Globe. The $100,000 campaign originally was intended to address communicable diseases in general. However, experts noticed the increase in STI cases among teenagers and decided to spend all the funding on the campaign targeting STIs.