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Health Departments talk about STD awareness month

Category: Chlamydia

With rates on the rise for sexually transmitted diseases, health departments across the country are using National STD Awareness Month to get the word out about the importance of STD tests.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention has launched the "Get Yourself Tested" campaign, partnering with MTV and the Kaiser Foundation to reach out to communities and spread the word about getting tested for STD's.

Experts say the problem isn't discussed enough, even though diseases are prevalent in nearly all communities.

"We want to make sure people are getting tested," Knox County health department director of community health improvement, Michele Fishburn, told the Galesburg Register-Mail. "We want to help people make smart decisions, but part of that process is communication. We want partners talking to each other, parents talking to their children and people talking to their doctor."

Public officials hope this communication campaign will help curb the rates of infection around the country.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are 19 million new STD infections each year, and that almost half of those cases are among young people between the ages of 15 and 24.