As we fight the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s still another ongoing epidemic.
Sexually transmitted diseases in the United States have reportedly hit a record high for six straight years.
The Centers for Disease Control is still putting numbers together for cases during the pandemic, but says the pattern appears to be on going.
“It's really from what we would consider four major drivers,” said Stephanie Arnold Pang, senior director of policy and communications for the National Coalition of STD Directors.
“Number one, stigma is always a big one, when associated with STDs,” she said. “The second is individuals not seeking healthcare during the COVID pandemic, either from shutdown or just being nervous about going into seeing a provider at this time. The third one is barriers to testing or clinics shutting down or reducing hours and switching over to doing COVID-19 response. And then the fourth is public health staff being pulled off of STD response and moving over to COVID-19 response.”
Just as we've learned with COVID-19, testing is one of the major ways to curb the spread of infection.
Most insurance providers will cover at least some of the cost for STD testing at health care facilities
But now, only one state requires them to cover the cost of at-home testing, which can run between $150 to $300, out of pocket.
Health experts say the CDC website, your local government and your primary care doctor can all be good resources to get more information on STD’s.
