Clark County Health Department's "Get Yourself Tested" Campaign, Part 2
Tuesday, July 26th, 2016 -- 9:28 AM
-The Clark County Health Department is encouraging county residents to get tested for STI’s.I spoke with Kelsey Lynn, a nurse at Clark County’s Reproductive Health Clinic, and Melissa Kono, the county’s CNRED agent, about an initiative they’re running known as they “Get Yourself Tested” Initiative. Kelsey explained why getting tested is important.
"Chlamydia is one of the most common STIs, not only nation wide, but in Clark County. So, to put that in perspective, in the year 2010 a total of over 1.3 million cases of the Chlamydia infection were reported to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and that was the largest number of cases ever reported for a disease over all."
"Chlamydia, specifically, is known as the silent disease, so a lot of men and women are not aware that they have the infection because typically there aren't any symptoms associated with that infection. People, they're not having symptoms; they're thinking I'm okay. But actually, if you have a long term untreated Chlamydia infection, that can lead to health consequences for both men and women. The biggest one, or the most problematic, would be infertility."
"So, how do we track these numbers? Well, clinics and other medical centers throughout the county are required to report positive Chlamydia results to local health departments. And for Clark County, I have the pleasure of following up on those cases. So, what that process typically looks like is, initially, a phone call to the providers office to inquire whether or not that individual took that treatment or not. And then the second piece would be, for me to follow up with that individual to inquire about like partner risk and offer any education or counseling in regard to STI prevention. And then that's also a great opportunity for me to offer our clinic's services."
"Again, to put that into perspective, in 2014 our health department followed up on 51 cases and in the year 2015, 44 cases. So, you're thinking, 'wow, the number's decreasing this is great.' But, keep in mind, these numbers are only reflecting a portion of the total number of people who have these infections because we can only track the cases that are reported for those individuals that are willing to walk in the clinic to complete an STI test."
Coming up on Wednesday, we’ll hear about some of the barrier people encounter when it comes to getting tested.
In Case You Missed It:
Part 1: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=17122
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