STI Rates Among Adolescents and Young Adults Reach All-Time Highs
The numbers are clear: With nearly 2.3 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis diagnosed in 2017, rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are at an all-time high in the U.S. The same fact holds true in Minnesota, where rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis reached all-time peaks in 2017. While affecting individuals of all ages, STIs take a particularly heavy toll on adolescents and young adults. While 15-24 year olds make up just over one quarter of the sexually active population, they account for about half of the new STI diagnoses in the U.S. each year. Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among U.S. Adolescents & Young Adults: Patterns, Clinical Considerations & Prevention, a review article published in June 2019 by Dr. Renee Sieving and colleagues takes a closer look at trends in STIs among adolescents and young adults in the U.S.
What’s behind these soaring statistics? At first glance, one might guess that youth STI rates would be dropping. Fewer adolescents have had sexual intercourse; sexually experienced adolescents and young adults are having less sex with fewer partners than in years past. And as Sieving and colleagues’ review article details, a broad array of evidence-based approaches exist for STI screening, treatment, and prevention with adolescents and young adults, designed to be offered through clinic, community, school, and public health settings. However, funding for implementing STI prevention strategies is lagging. For example, the level of federal funding to the CDC for STI prevention has been stagnant for almost two decades. According to Dr. Bradley Stoner, medical director of the St. Louis STD/HIV Prevention Training Center at Washington University in St. Louis “increasing federal funding could allow organizations like the CDC to hire more people focused on STI prevention, increase public health education campaigns, and make testing and treatment resources more accessible.” Sieving notes “Among young people, efforts to prevent STIs must reach beyond clinics and school classrooms, be attuned to adolescent and young adult development and youth culture, capitalize on youth-friendly technologies, and change social contexts in ways that encourage and support young people in making healthy sexual decisions.”