STD & HIV News Blog

One in ten women in Britain have chlamydia

Sun, 15 Nov 2015 00:06:41 +0000

CDC : Indiana has 'one of the worst' HIV outbreaks

Thu, 21 May 2015 17:26:27 +0000

INDIANAPOLIS — A team of high-ranking federal officials will visit Indiana on Tuesday to get a firsthand look at the response to an HIV outbreak of more than 140 cases, one of the largest in recent years, in the hope of learning ways to prevent similar occurrences.

"This is one of the worst documented outbreaks of HIV among IV users in the past two decades," said Dr. Jonathan Mermin, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "It's of import to the CDC as well as the people of Indiana."

The Scott County outbreak, which was first noted in December, has yet to be controlled. Officials from the CDC and health departments from three other states have been assisting Indiana State Department of Health workers in responding to the HIV spread.

With no end date in sight, CDC officials will remain in Indiana, participating in the ongoing effort to track people who could have contracted HIV, either through sharing needles or having sexual contact with those already known to be infected.

"This is still an active investigation," Mermin said. "We are here as long as we are needed."

Nor is it clear how large the outbreak could be once the investigation has concluded.

The State Department of Health has alerted health care providers in other parts of Indiana to be aware of the outbreak and to do HIV testing of their patients who use intravenous drugs.

"We're under no illusion that there's a magic line around Scott County that's going to prevent the spread," said Dr. Jerome Adams, Indiana State Health commissioner.

In this instance, the outbreak came to light because of an "astute" public health nurse who noted 11 recently diagnosed HIV cases, far from the area's norm of fewer than five a year. As the number of cases soared far beyond the normal rate, health officials declared it an epidemic.

Drug use, often of the prescription painkiller Opana, is a "multigenerational activity, with as many as three generations of a family and multiple community members injecting together," state health officials wrote in an article published Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Some pregnant women have been infected, and nearly 85% of those who tested positive for HIV were positive for hepatitis C as well.

Having HIV spread through a community like this is not an everyday occurrence. Since the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s, health officials have seen almost a 90% decrease in the number of new infections among people who use drugs.

"It's the population among which we have had the most success in HIV prevention in the United States," Mermin said.

But drug users in urban areas may be more aware of the risks associated with needle sharing and other practices that can lead to infection, Adams said. In addition, they also might know that HIV these days is not necessarily a death sentence but can be controlled with medications.

Communicating these messages to the people of Scott County has been a key part of the response to the HIV outbreak, along with providing immunizations, substance abuse and job counseling and other services to area residents. Local officials also instituted a temporary needle exchange program, made legal by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence's public health emergency order.

Now, state health officials will look to see whether they need additional resources in other areas at risk of an HIV outbreak. They will look to Scott County to see what worked and what did not. And they will take into account local needs and resources already in place, Adams said.

"It's not one size fits all," he said.

The frustrating thing with implementing such programs, Mermin said, is that failures often garner more attention than successes.

"The paradox to public health is if you do a very good job, no one knows it was done," Mermin said.

Health officials warn of increase in STD cases

Thu, 21 May 2015 16:47:37 +0000

Gonorrhea cases continue to increase in Minnehaha County in spite of ongoing efforts to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and infections, local and state health officials said Monday.

Last year, county medical professionals reported 257 cases of gonorrhea, according to the South Dakota Department of Health. Through the first three months of this year, they reported 66 cases of the venereal disease, putting the yearly projection for the county's gonorrhea cases at 264.

"The rate of gonorrhea cases here in Minnehaha County has tripled since 2011, and from what we are already seeing this year, STDs are indeed a health concern that deserves our attention," said Dr. Jennifer Tinguely, chief medical officer at Falls Community Health.

Working with state health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the clinic monitors STD cases and offers health screenings — on a sliding fee scale based on income — to help prevent the diseases from spreading, Tinguely said. But so far, data indicate those efforts are falling on deaf ears for at least one portion of the population.

Lon Kightlinger, state epidemiologist with the state Department of Health, said gonorrhea and STD rates include a nearly equal number of male and females. Where a disparity is prevalent, he said, is between age groups.

"Sexually transmitted diseases affect people of all ages, but we see our biggest case numbers in those ages 15 to 24, both in South Dakota and in the nation," Kightlinger said.

Based on a recent CDC report, that age group, though making up only about one-quarter of the United States' sexually active population, is responsible for about half of the 20 million new STD cases each year.

Fifty-four percent of Sioux Falls STD cases are individuals between 20 and 29, according to information provided by the city Health Department.

"There are a number of factors that put younger people at risk, including having multiple partners, access to screenings, concerns about confidentiality and even social media and the Internet, which have made it easier for people to find anonymous sex partners," Tinguely said.

To make inroads with the people most affected by the growing prevalence of STDs, programs are being developed in conjunction with education officials and other community partners to better reach young people, said Vanessa Sweeney, clinic services manager at Falls Community Health.

"With the younger demographic, traditional outreach methods might not always work, so that's something that we're actually researching right now ... to make sure that we are pushing out and disseminating this information in a way that will actually reach their ears or their eyes," she said.

In the meantime, two grant awards recently secured by Falls Community Health will enable the clinic to continue ongoing prevention efforts for other STDs.

The clinic recently received $370,500 in federal funding for the Ryan White Part C Program, an early intervention program aimed at bettering the quality and availability of health care for HIV/AIDS patients. A grant of $80,000 from the CDC, awarded through the state Health Department, will cover personnel and service costs for HIV testing, HIV prevention education using CDC-approved practices, pharmaceutical consultations for patients and connections to medical care and partner services.

BY THE NUMBERS

20 million - new STD cases in U.S. annually

54 - percent of Sioux Falls STD cases involving people 20 to 29 years old

255 - cases of chlamydia in Minnehaha County from January to March

66 - cases of gonorrhea in Minnehaha County from January to March

257 - cases of gonorrhea in Minnehaha County in 2014