County’s STD rates down slightly, but still remain high

Rates of sexually transmitted diseases dropped slightly last year in Douglas County, but they remain far higher than national figures.

The county first announced an epidemic of STDs in 2004 and has searched for ways to fight the problem.

Dr. Adi Pour, director of the Douglas County Health Department, said Monday that the high rates remain a concern.

Efforts to fight the problem have included offering testing at health fairs and other sites so that people don’t have to come in to clinics to get screened. There also have been efforts to raise awareness through advertising, including in school newspapers.

Pour said lack of awareness about STDs contributed to the county’s high rates. Parents, for example, didn’t talk to their teens about STDs and teens didn’t understand how the disease spreads.

The county’s rate for chlamydia last year dropped from 553.5 cases per 100,000 population to 542.6. That compares with 401.3 cases per 100,000 nationally.

The county’s gonorrhea rate dropped from 185.1 cases per 100,000 population to 181.2. Nationally, the rate last year was 111.6.

Those two diseases account for the bulk of STDs in the county. Both can strike without symptoms and, if untreated, make sufferers infertile.

For both diseases, the numbers of cases are highest among teens and young adults.

Nationally, chlamydia cases continued to rise, setting yet another record in 2008, government health officials said Monday.

Last year, there were 1.2 million new cases of chlamydia. It was the most ever reported, up from the old record of 1.1 million cases in 2007.

Better screening is the most likely reason, said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr. of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gonorrhea cases dropped to about 337,000 cases in 2008, down from about 356,000 cases.

The government estimates there are roughly 19 million new cases of sexually transmitted disease annually.

This report includes material from the Associated Press.

« Health

Share