Sacramento County ranks high in STDs

For the 14th year in a row, Sacramento County is a statewide leader in sexually transmitted diseases.

That's according to the latest County Health Status Profile from the California Department of Public Health, which ranks California counties by the number of cases relative to the counties' populations.

Second only to Fresno County in female gonorrhea, and fourth in chlamydia and male gonorrhea, Sacramento ranks eighth in AIDS cases. Chlamydia reports have risen countywide by 60 percent since the disease was first included in the 2001 report, but STD rates overall have risen in California.

It's not clear what's driving the numbers, but Sacramento County Public Health Officer Olivia Kasirye thinks it might have something to do with young people’s misconception about the risk of certain STDs. Screening and education efforts focused so heavily on HIV prevention that people didn't get tested for other diseases. We're now seeing an uptick in syphilis, which was almost nonexistent until a few years ago, Kasirye said.

The county has tried to shake the trend by bolstering outreach and education efforts. Everyone coming through the county's juvenile detention center gets tested, according to nursing supervisor Gwen Morrissey, and county reps visit high schools with educational material.

Young women hesitant or unable to access clinic-based STD services can request a confidential testing kit online, collect their own sample and ship it back to a lab for analysis through the county's I Know program.