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Sexual infection rate is high in region

Does Rock County have a sexual health problem?

"As a matter of fact, we do," Health Officer Karen Cain said.

Rock County had at least 603 reportable cases of sexually transmitted infections in 2009—491 of chlamydia and 112 of gonorrhea.

Rock County follows a statewide trend of growing numbers of reported STIs. Chlamydia and gonorrhea are the state's top STIs, with the younger crowd—15 to 24-year-olds—reporting the highest number of cases.

"I think there is a huge problem with sexually transmitted diseases," said Cheryl Mazmanian, Western Racine County health officer. "There is an awful lot of chlamydia being passed around in young teenagers. You can see that the numbers are very high."

Walworth County Health Officer Pat Grove said numbers there have been average. Still, there is a growing trend.

In Walworth County, 222 cases of STIs were reported in 2009, of which 202 were chlamydia and 20 were gonorrhea. Just for chlamydia, the 2009 numbers are 61 higher than in 2008, 57 higher than in 2007 and 77 higher than in 2006.

The reported cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea in 2009 are second only to H1N1, which had about 327 reported cases in Walworth County.

"There is certainly more that needs to be done because we continue to have such a high STI rate," Rock County's Cain said. "There is a lot of education that needs to be done."

Education seems to be the key word for most health officers in Wisconsin's southeastern corner. Treating cases as they come is the band-aid solution. So health departments turn to teaching children about safe sex.

In Racine County, a health official trained on sexual health issues routinely visits schools to talk about safe sex practices and STIs.

Getting the program started in Racine County was a challenge, Mazmanian said. School officials weren't trusting at first, unsure the health department would avoid preaching "things they didn't want us to preach."

Once the program was implemented, part of the problem in Racine became evident.

"Kids are really lacking knowledge prior to the class being presented," said Mazmanian, whose county had about 878 cases of chlamydia in 2006, according to an annual report by the UW Population Health Institute.

School-aged children take evaluations tests before and after the sex education classes. Often, the test reveals children don't know enough about safe sexual practices, including condom use.

Jefferson County has a similar program.

"Our staff provide prevention education, and they try to get into the schools and they do have a specific program that they use that they've developed over many, many years," Health Officer Gail Scott said. "The schools are very receptive of our staff coming in and talking about STIs and other communicable diseases."

STIs have always been a concern in Jefferson County, Scott said, "and that's why we try to get into the schools and get some early education and prevention activities."

"I think all health departments are working on trying to decrease the number," she added.

Perhaps most health departments, but not all. Health Officer Pat Grove of Walworth County said the department has no contract with schools for early sexual health education, and there is no countywide formal outreach program.

Most efforts there are concentrated on diagnosis and treatment, the latter being contracted out to the local Planned Parenthood office.

Rock County also has no formal program. Cain said her department's nurses guest-speak on the subject when schools ask and the health officials also attend health fairs, neither of which are done routinely.

"That's, right now, the extent of what we do for sexual health," she added.

What are the most common reportable sexually transmitted infections?

Chlamydia is the most frequently reported bacterial STI in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can damage a woman's reproductive organs, which can cause infertility. In men, chlamydia can cause discharge from the penis.

In 2006, more than 1 million cases were reported to the CDC nationwide. And it is estimated that there are nearly 2.3 million Americans between the ages of 14 and 39 infected with chlamydia, according to the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Gonorrhea is caused by a bacterium that can grow and multiply easily in the warm, moist areas of the reproductive tract, including the opening to the womb, womb and egg canals in women, and in the urine canal in women and men. The bacterium can also grow in the mouth, throat, eyes and anus.

If passed during childbirth, gonorrhea can cause blindness and death to the infant.

The CDC estimates that more than 700,000 people in the U.S. get new gonorrheal infections each year, and only about half of these infections are reported to the centers.