STD's On The Rise

It's a health scare across the country and thousands of new cases are reported in the Upstate. Now researchers say STD's are on the rise, especially in young women. A new study is out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and even shows Syphilis is making a comeback.Despite prevention efforts, more young women are contracting the most common sexually transmitted diseases. At Reach Upstate in Spartanburg Chrissy Calvert says she sees it all the time.

By: | News Channel 7
Published: January 14, 2009

It's a health scare across the country and thousands of new cases are reported in the Upstate. Now researchers say STD's are on the rise, especially in young women.
A new study is out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and even shows Syphilis is making a comeback.
Despite prevention efforts, more young women are contracting the most common sexually transmitted diseases. At Reach Upstate in Spartanburg Chrissy Calvert says she sees it all the time.

Calvert says, "Gonorrhea and Chlamydia have been the primary that we have heard about among the young people that we teach.

According to Calvert the CDC's report that the numbers are rising is not shocking.

Calvert says, "In the nation our state is ranked number 4 for cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia."

Poppy Umberg teaches children about sexually transmitted diseases and she says they don't have the information they need.

According to Umberg, "They don't think that it can happen to them. they just think they are immune to the STD's that are out there."

She says one of the biggest problems we face is that many young people are having oral sex thinking that makes them immune to the diseases.

Umberg says, "They say well if I participate in that nothing will happen to me because its not real sex and I won't get anything and they just don't know and that yes you can still get the gonorrhea and the Chlamydia."

Calvert says there is also a big problem with unprotected sex here and the stigma of getting tested. She says you don't have to have symptoms to transfer the disease.

Calvert says, "A lot of them just would say this isn't happening to me nothing is going on because they don't have the symptoms."

Both women agree with the CDC's findings that young people need more information about STD's. However we can get it to them, by talking, pamphlets or even text messages.
African american women age 15 to 24 saw the biggest rise in STD's.
In the last 6 month period on record, the Upstate saw more than one thousand new gonorrhea cases and more than two thousand new cases of Chlamydia.
If you would like to take a look at the numbers by county click on this link.