North Carolina has one of the highest STD rates in the country, study says. Here’s why
North Carolina is among the worst states when it comes to rates of sexually transmitted diseases, a study found.
The study, done by Innerbody.com, used 2018 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank states with the highest and lowest rates of STDs in the country.
North Carolina ranked No. 6 among the 10 states with the highest rates, the study found.
The state had a total of 91,376 reported cases of STDs, the study says. With a population of nearly 10.3 million, that’s 889 cases per 100,000 people.
There were 66,553 reported cases of chlamydia in the state, 23,725 cases of gonorrhea and 1,098 cases of syphilis, according to the study.
Data on herpes and other “relatively common” STDs are not collected by the CDC, the study says. Additionally, HIV cases weren’t reported by some cities and weren’t included in the study.
But according to 2018 data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, there were 1,218 new reported cases of HIV among those ages 13 and older in the state.
South Carolina was also among the states with the highest rates and ranked at No. 4, the study found. The state had a rate of 957 reported cases per 100,000 people.
Alaska had the highest rate in the country, the study found, with 1,144 cases reported per 100,000 people.
Of the 10 states with the highest rates of STDs, seven were in the South. This could be due to the region’s lack of access to affordable health care, the study says.
“The South has more people living in poverty and in rural areas, which may make it harder for them to get tested and treated for STDs,” Ronald Gray, professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins University, said in the study.
Data from the North Carolina health department shows that STD rates were higher among some “racial and ethnic groups,” which the department says may be driven by poverty and wealth distribution gaps.
“People who cannot afford basic needs may also have trouble accessing quality sexual health services, and may have had experiences with the health system that discourage the accessing of testing and care,” the department says.
For each person who was diagnosed with an STD in 2018, the department found the proportion of people living below the poverty line in their census tract, or area in which they live. It found that those living in areas with higher proportions of people living below the poverty line were more likely to be diagnosed with an STD.
How to prevent STDs
Any sexually active person can get a sexually transmitted disease, the CDC says, but they are preventable.
Using condoms each time you have sex is a good way to avoid STDs, the CDC says. But it’s still possible to get some STDs, like herpes or HPV, when using a condom.
However, vaccinations are available to protect against HPV, which is the most common STD, the CDC says.
It’s also important to talk to your partner to make sure both of you have been tested for STDs. Some STDs don’t have any symptoms, the CDC says, and the only way to be sure you don’t have one is to get tested.
Those who aren’t comfortable talking to their doctor about getting tested can use an at-home test, the study says.
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 1:44 PM with the headline "North Carolina has one of the highest STD rates in the country, study says. Here’s why."
