Image courtesy of darwin Bell / Flickr
Do not keep protection just out of reach. Instead, keep them on your person and easily accessible when you want to bump and grind.
Sexually transmitted infections are rising in the St. Louis region.
Over the last six years, STIs have increased by over 1,000 cases, from 3,866 in 2015 to 5,119 in 2021, according to data from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
In June 2022, the most recent time period for which statistics are available, Jackson County had the largest number of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases in the state with 5,242. St. Louis County trailed closely behind with 5,039 and St. Louis city has 3,305.
Health professionals, including Enbal Shacham, associate dean for research at Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice, expressed worry about the climbing numbers in an interview with KSDK. The heightened transmission rates could create treatment-resistant strains, for example.
Shacham said that STI cases increased during the pandemic with less testing available.
“We were realizing that the increase was happening in 2019,” Shacham said. “And then the pandemic hit and so much shifted we weren't able to handle it in a way that we should have handled in 2019.”
