Denzel Washington
April across the United States is Sexually Transmitted Infection month and in Peoria County, this is one of the most pressing issues facing the county.
“Unfortunately Peoria County and central Illinois, we’re still challenged with teen pregnancy as being a significant community health issue,” said Greg Chance, public health administrator for the Peoria health department.
In fact, they say Peoria County has long had one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state. It’s on par with the city of Chicago.
Officials are unsure exactly why that is, but last year they began work to bring rates down. They say it’s a team effort.
“There’s a role for schools in terms of education. There’s a role for the faith community, for the health department, for medical professionals in terms of what goes on in that exam room,” said Chance.
According to an editorial in the Peoria Journal Star that ran on May 19 of last year, “the undeniably bad news is that more than two decades after Peoria County earned the regrettable distinction as “ worst in the nation” for out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates, specifically among teens… the community and this newspaper declared it public enemy number one locally and set out to change that fact…”
“My daughter got chlamydia a few years ago. It was a dumb thing she did, a poor choice to have sex without a condom, but she suffered the consequences,” said Marion Rembholtz, a Peoria mother of three adult kids, one, Jen, contracted the disease her senior year. “It’ was a stupid, stupid thing she did.”
We did our own research on the issue and found that four 14 consecutive years, from 2000 until 2014, Illinois was ranked in the top five states for reported cases of chlamydia and in the top ten for reported cases of syphilis and gonorrhea.
It was also determined that Illinois’ worst year of the fourteen we studied concluded 2001 was the worst year for reported STI’s with 135, 927 cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. The state’s best year was 2013 with 1054 combined cases. The worst year and state combo overall was Missouri in 2001 with 225, 551 different cases.
According to the Peoria Journal Star, on May 19, 2015, “ as for sexual[ly] transmitted infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, the locals also outpace their national peers, with Peoria County at double the U.S. standard for the former and nearly triple for the latter. In 61605 neighborhoods, chlamydia infections occur at nearly six times the national mark; the incidence of gonorrhea is eight times higher here.”
For more information, please visit The Peoria City/County Health Department STD Clinic. They conduct tests for gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, and HIV. The Clinic offers a rapid HIV test with results ready in 15-20 minutes.
In addition to testing, they offer treatment for gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis
You can get your results either by calling the clinic or receiving a coded text message on your cell phone. For more information on the STD Clinic call: 679-6030
http://catalog.data.gov/dataset/idph-stds-nationally-ranked-by-state/resource/ce08043f-4d12-4890-a3a5-b68539a91f74