Signs of STD

Health providers warn of diminished HIV testing during pandemic - The Lens Health providers warn of diminished HIV testing during pandemic - The Lens Posted: 09 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PST In a normal year, CrescentCare — a regional hub for sexual and reproductive healthcare — would administer nearly 12,000 rapid HIV tests. Staff would fan out to clubs on Frenchmen Street, to local churches and college campuses, and to Pride, offering a free test that delivers a result within about half an hour using just a finger prick of blood. Of course, this is not a normal year, and across the state, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the effort to detect and treat HIV. So far this year, CrescentCare's testing rate is only a bit more than 10 percent of its former annual average. With the drop in overall tests, said Joseph Olsen, CrescentCare's director of testing, fewer people are testing positive and being connected to treatment. "We've li...

People Are Still Having Sex. So Why Are S.T.D. Rates Dropping? - The New York Times People Are Still Having Sex. So Why Are S.T.D. Rates Dropping? - The New York Times Posted: 28 Oct 2020 12:00 AM PDT For the first time in years, rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, which had been on track in 2020 to hit record highs in the United States, have taken an abrupt downturn. This should be good news. The coronavirus pandemic has certainly kept more people away from bars, night clubs and large parties, reducing opportunities for unsafe sex, studies show. But the drop is more likely a harbinger of bad news, experts in reproductive and sexual health believe. They say the pandemic has seriously hindered efforts to mitigate sexually transmitted infections that can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pain, infertility and even blindness and death in newborns. Rather than showing sexually transmitted diseases are on the run, the up...

Build a plan for Covid-19 home testing on reason, not politics - STAT - STAT Build a plan for Covid-19 home testing on reason, not politics - STAT - STAT Posted: 16 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PST J ohn Maynard Keynes once famously observed that there's nothing as disastrous as a rational investment policy in an irrational world. But when it comes to public health, rational policies make sense even in an irrational or chaotic time like the midst of a severe pandemic. When the government ignores rational health policy, and instead follows unsound ones, the effects can last longer than anyone expects. That's what happened with the federal government's unfounded resistance to home HIV testing, which cost millions of lives and trillions of dollars. We see similar resistance regarding home Covid-19 tests, which are being disparaged because they might not yield demographic data or might be misinterpreted. Putting up barriers to home testing would...

CDC's Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention Announcement - AIDS.gov blog CDC's Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention Announcement - AIDS.gov blog Posted: 17 Nov 2020 12:00 AM PST Cross-posted from CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention Dr. Demetre Daskalakis Photo courtesy of CDC CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) is pleased to welcome Dr. Demetre Daskalakis as CDC's Director of the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) beginning December 21, 2020. Dr. Daskalakis brings many years of experience in HIV prevention and control to his work in DHAP. Dr. Daskalakis was integral in designing and leading many HIV and STD programs in New York City, including their Ending the Epidemic program, which is credited with decreasing HIV incidence to an historic low. We are excited for him to bring this leadership an...

Covid-19 is making at-home STI testing kits more accessible - Quartz Covid-19 is making at-home STI testing kits more accessible - Quartz Posted: 29 Sep 2020 12:00 AM PDT Covid-19 is hogging the infectious disease spotlight for 2020. But that doesn't mean that other illnesses have disappeared. Many experts fear that in the absence of routine preventative healthcare visits, sexually transmitted infections, or STIs, have the potential to skyrocket. That concern, however, has created a new kind of market: one for at-home STI testing collection kits. "We noticed an explosion of STI at-home collection test kit sales starting in March," says Christina Song, a spokesperson for Everlywell. Along with companies like Fig, LetsGetChecked, and Nurx, Everlywell sells kits for collecting blood or urine that can be shipped back to a lab to get analyzed. "To be quite candid, we didn't get why," says Song. In theory, people shou...

People Are Still Having Sex. So Why Are S.T.D. Rates Dropping? - The New York Times People Are Still Having Sex. So Why Are S.T.D. Rates Dropping? - The New York Times Posted: 28 Oct 2020 12:00 AM PDT For the first time in years, rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis, which had been on track in 2020 to hit record highs in the United States, have taken an abrupt downturn. This should be good news. The coronavirus pandemic has certainly kept more people away from bars, night clubs and large parties, reducing opportunities for unsafe sex, studies show. But the drop is more likely a harbinger of bad news, experts in reproductive and sexual health believe. They say the pandemic has seriously hindered efforts to mitigate sexually transmitted infections that can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pain, infertility and even blindness and death in newborns. Rather than showing sexually transmitted diseases are on the run, the up...