STI rates 'at their highest numbers' in US as Covid dominates health funding

[Jilly_in_VA]

Health officials in the US are concerned about how to divert key resources to combatting a rise in sexually-transmitted infections (STI) that is now continuing despite the social restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic and is now in its sixth consecutive year of increase.

America has continually combatted rising STI rates pre-pandemic, one of many poor public health outcomes in the US, despite massive spending on healthcare. But, following an artificial dip in STI rates during the Covid-19 pandemic, STI rates are now on the rise again while health funding is still being allocated to address the pandemic.

“All told, at the end of the day, STI rates are at their highest numbers in American history and that has continued through the pandemic up to the current time,” said executive director of the National Coalition of STD directors (NCSD) David C. Harvey.

Experts have called the rebound of STI cases – and a projected increase in infections – the result of a perfect storm of sluggish STI testing, changing behaviors as pandemic restrictions are lifted nationwide and persistent problems around STI education, falling condom use and a weak public healthcare infrastructure.

STI increases also reflect societally unequal trends in health outcomes, with communities of color and southern states disproportionately affected by increases in STI and its consequences.

“Bottom line: STIs didn’t go anywhere and they’re going to come right back. There’s no reason to think that we won’t bounce right back to what we were seeing prior to the pandemic,” said Dr Ina Parks, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine and author of Strange Bedfellows, a book on STIs.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/24/us-sti-rates-covid-sexually-transmitted-infections-funding