Report: D.C. Has One Of The Highest STD Rates In The Country
In recent years, the D.C. Department of Health has put a lot of effort into its safe sex campaigns, particular in HIV and AIDS prevention. And while the city's AIDS/HIV rates are rapidly declining, D.C. still has some of the highest STD rates in the country, according to a new report put together by Superdrug Online Doctor. So high, in fact, that D.C. "requires its own scale due to its very high rate of STDs, with peak rates of gonorrhea more than three times higher than the peak rate among the 50 states," the report says.
The report, which culled through data from the WHO and CDC databases, and a 2012 D.C. Department of Health report, reveals that, in addition to HIV and AIDS, the District has a "struggle of epidemic proportions" with STDs like chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and hepatitis.
In the top five states per STD, D.C. (no, it's not a state, of course) comes in at number one for gonorrhea (average rate of 421 cases per 100,000 residents), syphilis (average of 75.54 per 100,000 residents), and HIV (179.56 per 100,000), all between 2000 and 2013. For chlamydia, D.C. ranks at number two, right behind Delaware, with an average of 570.40 cases per 100,000 residents. The report also found that the areas with "the most new STD cases were states surrounding D.C."
But don't panic about the high STD rate in D.C. At least, don't panic as much as the report suggests you should. Michael Kharfen, Senior Deputy Director of HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD & TB Administration for the D.C. Department of Health, offers some explanation for the seemingly high rate documented in the report.
"We are dense urban setting in a small area, so the fact that our rates are higher than, say, Missouri, isn't really comparable," he tells DCist. Furthermore, the DOH's methods for STD screening in recent years has drastically improved, meaning it's been easier to detect STD's like chlamydia, especially for males.
"We do have very active screening types of efforts," Kharfen says. "In some ways, the more screening that we do...the more you're going to find [STDs]." Still, that's not to say D.C. doesn't have high STD rates, Kharfen confirms that the District does have high rates of chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea. But the DOH is working on ways to reduce that, which is why the "high rate" highlighted in the report isn't such a bad thing. That means the screening efforts are working and people can more effectively get treatment.
One of the campaigns the DOH is about to launch is aimed at lowering rates of chlamydia in the District. The program, called "expedited partner therapy," will help reach more people who may have been exposed to chlamydia by allowing those diagnosed share their prescription for treatment with their partners. But the key to making it work is identifying more people living with the disease.
"Identifying more cases means we can easily treat more people," Kharfen says.
