Sexually transmitted diseases go up in Alaska

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Alaska has the nation’s highest rate of Chlamydia and second-highest rate of gonorrhea as the sexually transmitted diseases spread in rural areas, according to the Alaska Division of Public Health.

A total 6,026 cases of the bacterial disease Chlamydia were reported in Alaska in 2010, a 13 percent rise over the previous year. The Alaska case rate of 849 per 100,000 people is more than twice the national rate of 417, the department said.

Reported cases of gonorrhea totaled 1,273 in 2010, a 23 percent increase and counter to a national trend of reduced gonorrheal infections, the state said. Alaska’s rate was 179 per 100,000 people, compared to a national rate of 99.

The high rates partly reflect Alaska’s demographics, according to Susan Jones, HIV and sexually transmitted disease program coordinator for the state.

“The burden of Chlamydia and gonorrhea is in the young population,” Jones said. “Alaska on average has a young population compared to most states.”

The diseases are also prevalent among ethnic minorities. The rural regions of the state with the worst rates of infection have largely Alaska native populations, she said.

Lack of timely treatment in those rural areas adds to the problem, Jones said.

The Alaska Medical Board recently enacted a rule change authorizing doctors to prescribe medicine to sexual partners of infected patients even if those partners are not examined, she said.

Chlamydia infections are rising nationally, though not as dramatically as in Alaska, Jones said.

Sometimes the symptoms are mild or not noticeable. “Probably 85 percent of the people who have chlamydia will never know it,” Jones said.

Even without symptoms, Chlamydia can have serious consequences, including pelvic inflammatory disease leading to infertility in women, Jones said.

“It’s not a benign infection,” she said.

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By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska

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