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Find the NCC on Facebook!
The National Chlamydia Coalition is now on Facebook. To follow the NCC, simply visit our page and click the "like" button. Don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues!
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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 also may find it of use. |
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NCC/NIHCM Adolescents and STDs Webinar Materials Now Available
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The National Chlamydia Coalition (NCC), along with the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM), jointly hosted a webinar, "Adolescents and STDs: A Call to Action for Providers and Health Plans," on July 24th. The webinar highlighted  opportunities for improving the prevention and diagnosis of STDs among adolescents, including: resources for communicating with providers about the importance of assessing sexual risk and testing for STDs; considerations for effectively reaching adolescents, including the importance of confidentiality; and a successful health plan collaborative focused on improving chlamydia screening rates in Minnesota. An archive of the webinar, as well as the agenda, presentations and additional resources are now available on the NIHCM website.
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Research Suggests Family Planning Clinics Should Screen Males for Chlamydia
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In this installment of the Research Translation Committee's Expert Commentary series, Sarah Salomon, MPH, from Cardea Services discusses the importance of male chlamydia screening in a family planning setting. Enhanced data from the Infertility Prevention  Program in Washington State revealed surprisingly high rates of infection among males attending family planning clinics, even when controlling for gender of sex partners and known exposure to an STD. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends routine chlamydia screening for males in settings with high chlamydia prevalence, such as STD clinics and correctional facilities, but not in family planning or primary care settings. Click here to read more.
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SHRE Featured Resource: PID Fact Sheet
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The Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) fact sheet, uploaded by the Office of Population Affairs, is a four page fact sheet that covers everything you need to know about PID, answering questions about the symptoms, testing and diagnosis, and treatment of the disease. For more useful sexual health resources, including fact sheets on a variety of other sexually transmitted diseases, check out the Sexual Health Resource Exchange (SHRE)!
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New Report on Experiences of LGBT Youth Online
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The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) released "Out Online: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth," the first national report to look in-depth at the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth experience online. According to the study, LGBT youth experience nearly three  times (42% vs. 15%) as much bullying and harassment online and are twice as likely to say they had been bullied via text message (27% vs 13%) as non-LGBT youth. However, despite the higher rates of bullying and harassment, LGBT youth also find greater peer support, access to health information, and opportunities to be civically engaged than non-LGBT youth.
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| New Case Study on Third Party Billing Available
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Cardea Servies has released the first in a series of case studies, Third-Party Billing at the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory: Lessons from the Field, highlighting state and local STD programs and public health labs' experience with third-party billing. With the impact of the Affordable Care Act, programs are looking to Medicaid and other third-party billing to sustain services. Policy and systems barriers, resource and capacity limitations, varying levels of leadership and staff buy-in, and concerns about billing for public health services often pose obstacles to implementation of billing in a public health setting.
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CDC Releases Data on HPV Vaccine
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report on HPV vaccine coverage and safety among adolescent girls aged 13-17 in the US. In 2012, only 33.4% of girls had received all three  recommended doses, similar to the rate in 2011. The survey results revealed that hesitancy among parents to have their daughters vaccinated could explain some of the low coverage rates, as about one-quarter of parents said they didn't plan on getting their daughters vaccinated in the next year. The most commonly reported reasons for not receiving the vaccine were a belief that the vaccine wasn't necessary (19.1%), the lack of a recommendation from a health care provider (14.2%), and safety concerns (13.1%).
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| Mark your Calendars for Growing People Potential 2013
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Cardea Services will be hosting Growing People Potential (GPP), a three-day residential institute for managers and supervisors, from September 25 through 27 in San Jose, CA. This institute will provide attendees an opportunity to develop skills as a manager or supervisor and give the tools needed to grow staff potential. Clinic managers, clinic supervisors, clinic team leaders, program directors, medical leads, nursing leads, and anyone who coaches, mentors or evaluates staff may attend. If you have any questions, please contact Cardea Services at 206-447-9538 or seattle@cardeaservices.org.
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| New CDC STD Treatment Guide App Available
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Division of STD Prevention recently launched an STD Treatment (Tx) Guidelines mobile app. The STD Tx Guide app is an easy-to-use reference that helps health care providers easily access diagnostic information and  current STD Treatment Guidelines. Providers who use this app will have quick access to information about the diagnosis and treatment of 21 STDs and the useful booklet "A Guide to Taking a Sexual History." The app is available for both Apple and Android devices and can be downloaded for free from the iTunes and Google Play stores.
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