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Please send items you would like to have included in future issues of NCC News to: cjohnson@prevent.org. |
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Happy Holidays! |
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Partnership for Prevention and the National Chlamydia Coalition wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year. Thank you for your interest in NCC News and your continued dedication to reducing rates of chlamydia and other STDS. | |
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Dear Colleague,
Welcome to NCC News. This online newsletter was created to keep you up-to-date on all things chlamydia, and related areas of interest. We hope you will find it useful and informative. Please feel free to share this with your colleagues who may also find it of use.
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NCC Holds Annual Meeting
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 On December 3-4 the National Chalmydia Coalition held its annual meeting in Washington, DC. Approximately 60 members and guests attended. Speaker topics included health reform, social marketing, and a panel on communicating about STDs and sexual health. Presentations can be viewed on the NCC website at www.prevent.org/NCC, under the For NCC Members tab. We'd like to extend a special thank-you to Tom Beall at Ogilvy Public Relations and David Helms at Academy Health for donating their time to speak at the meeting.
Each of the three committees also met to discuss objectives and projects for the next year. On the second day of the meeting, roundtable discussions were held to generate conversation and information-sharing on important topics. We think everyone agrees the meeting was a success and we look forward to continuing the coalition's work in the next year. |
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NCSD Study: Severe Cuts to STD Programs |
A new study from the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD) illustrates how much of an impact the economic crisis is having on STD programs and on the public health infrastructure.
The new study is based on a recent survey of states, large U.S. cities, and U.S. territories and documents the struggle of health departments across the nation to sustain the severe cuts in state and local funding enacted over the past few years. The majority of STD programs surveyed (69%) experienced funding cuts between 2008 and 2009. A more detailed analysis of the study can be found here.
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2008 CDC Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance Report
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released their 2008 Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance report, which tracks reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis in the United States. CDC estimates that there are approximately 19 million new STD infections each year - almost half of them among young people 15 to 24 years of age.
Chlamydia remains the most commonly reported infectious disease, with more than 1.2 million cases reported in 2008. This is an increase from the 1.1 million cases reported in 2007.The national rate of chlamydia increased 9.2%, from 367.5 cases per 100,000 population in 2007 to 401.3 in 2008. CDC notes that increases in chlamydia cases and rates are most likely due to an expansion of screening, use of more sensitive tests and more complete national reporting systems. Still, the majority of chlamydia cases go undiagnosed and unreported.
Adolescent girls continued to have the highest chlamydia rates and number of cases. In 2008, girls 15 to 19 saw 342,875 reported chlamydia cases and a rate of 3,275.8 per 100,000 females. Women aged 20 to 24 followed closely, with 323,696 cases and a rate of 3,179.9 cases per 100,000 females.
The 2008 Surveillance Report also highlighted the continued disproportionate impact of STDs on racial minorities. In 2008, African-Americans represented 12% of the U.S. population, but accounted for approximately 71% of reported gonorrhea cases and 48% of reported chlamydia cases.
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Research Update |
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Study Finds Half of Teen Girls Have STIs within Two Years of Becoming Sexually Active
A study published in the December issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine finds that up to half of teenage girls may become infected with chlamydia, gonorrhea or trichomoniasis within two years of becoming sexually active. Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine followed 386 urban adolescent girls aged 14 to 17 for eight years. One quarter of the girls in the study had contracted their first STI-usually chlamydia-by age 15. Repeated infections were also common, with a quarter of girls who had received treatment becoming re-infected after four to six months. These findings highlight the importance of early STI screening and treatment, and partner follow-up. UPMC to Establish Sexually Transmitted Infections Cooperative Research Center
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded a $12.5 million grant to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to establish the UPMC Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Cooperative Research Center. The Center will be a collaborative effort between UPMC and Magee-Women's Hospital to research female reproductive complications caused by sexually transmitted infections.
The grant awarded to UPMC will fund four principle research activities, including: treating pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), identifying the types of bacteria that cause bacterial vaginosis, understanding the role of receptor signaling with chlamydia, and identifying the immune response that is most associated with protection against chlamydia. For more information on the UMPC STI Research Center, click here. |
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Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Launches STD Website |
The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has launched a website, www.iknowmine.org, aimed to combat STDs among rural youth. The website allows teens to request an appointment to get tested for STDs, to submit questions to experts, and to order up to 20 free condoms at a time. The site also contains STD fact sheets and provides teens a space to share their stories. Starting in January, visitors to the site will be able to order home-testing kits for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Johns Hopkins University will analyze the home-test swabs and send the results to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium for follow-up.
Alaska has had the first or second highest chlamydia rate in the country every year since 2000, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. The I Know Mine website is seen as an important new way of reaching teens in remote locations, where receiving confidential access to condoms, STD testing and STD information may be difficult.
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Resource Corner
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CSG's Healthy States Initiative
 The Council of State Governments has several resources on STDs and sexual and reproductive health in their Healthy States initiative. Topics include reducing disparities and preventing STDs, HIV, and pregnancy in youth and can be found at www.healthystates.csg.org. They also provide an index of state profiles on STDs, HIV, and teen pregnancy prevention.
Fact Sheet on Parent Involvement Programs for Adolescents
 This Child Trends fact sheet presents lessons learned from 47 parent involvement programs that work, don't work, or have mixed results for adolescents ages 12 to 17. Overall, nearly two-thirds of parent involvement programs were found to be effective. Interventions that build parenting skills generally had positive impacts on at least one outcome. The fact sheet includes a chart of the programs that worked or didn't work for different outcomes, and a glossary summarizing the programs.
Parents' Role in Teens' Decisions about Sex
 A new Child Trends research brief, Parents Matter: The Role of Parents in Teens' Decisions about Sex, explores how parenting practices that occur before adolescents have had sexual intercourse are associated with the probability of first sex by age 16. This study is based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, sponsored and directed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. | |
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