Primary.Health enabled home-based testing, DoxyPEP, telehealth, and public health lab integration tools can help bridge these gaps.
Let’s start our new year on an optimistic note: the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reported that its 2023 data showed a slowdown in the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs):
- Rates of gonorrhea declined for a second year in a row – down to pre-pandemic levels.
- Overall rates of syphilis only rose 1% compared to double-digit rises for prior years.
- Rates of primary and secondary syphilis dropped by an impressive 10%, marking the most significant decline in two decades. In higher risk populations like gay and bisexual men, this decline was even more significant at 13%!
This is indeed welcome news and the public health community must rightly pause to commend themselves for the hard work done to achieve this decline. It represents the culmination of multiple new developments including more widespread availability of home-based testing.
Roadmap for further reductions
Despite these developments, there remains a lot of work to be done in this space. Declines in STI rates have been uneven across communities, with persistent inequities between geography, race, and ethnicities. Improving access to testing and treatment options for these communities will be critical for bringing down these rates further.
Even with the decline in STI rates, there were over 1.6 million cases of chlamydia nationally. Corresponding figures for syphilis and gonorrhea are over 200,000 and 600,000 respectively. DoxyPEP offers an easy tool to reduce the rates of these bacterial STIs but adoption remains quite limited. Use of non-traditional models including home-based testing, telehealth, and better public health lab integration tools can help close this gap.
Primary.Health empowers communities to provide discreet, affordable at-home testing for STIs. A recent yearlong partnership in California leveraged community health workers, home-based STI testing, and technology to improve access to screening and education. Talk to our Community Clinics team about designing a screening and treatment program for STIs and other infectious diseases to support your community’s needs.
