STD rates in Iowa are alarming health care officials - The Gazette
STD rates in Iowa are alarming health care officials - The Gazette STD rates in Iowa are alarming health care officials - The Gazette Posted: 31 Oct 2019 06:32 AM PDT Two hundred ninety-six percent. That's how much the gonorrhea rate in Des Moines County in southeast Iowa increased between 2016 and 2017, making it the highest rate in the state for that year. The number of infections rose from 36 cases to 142 among a population of 39,000, startling public health officials and spurring a reaction from local health care providers. "No one can really explain why that huge jump happened in 2017," said Cherry Klein, clinical manager at Family Planning of Southeast Iowa in Burlington. "It's not just one thing. ... Why so much of it happened in Des Moines County, we'll probably never know." Des Moines County was not the only county in the state that saw a concerning increase in sexually transmitted diseases, or ...