On January 28, FOX San Antonio’s Destany Fuller reported on the growing rates of STI’s in Bexar County in “Local health advocates push for STI awareness after alarming rise in San Antonio.” Healthy Futures of Texas applauds FOX and Destany for this critical feature.
KEY POINTS
- “According to CDC data from its 2023 STI surveillance report, Texas ranked in the top 20 for gonorrhea and chlamydia.
- The Lonestar state ranked 5th nationwide for Congenital syphilis, with 930 reported cases.
- Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are rising in San Antonio.
- Jen Biundo, “With any STI, our rates, our reported numbers are only as accurate as the screening that we’re doing to find these diseases. In Bexar County, there were almost 5000 cases of chlamydia just among young people under the age of 25,” she explained. “The good news is that is a decline from a few years ago.”
- Texas education standards are giving organizations a chance to start conversations about sexual health early. Allowing the curriculum to be taught as early as middle school.
- “If we don’t have the conversations with them, we know that they’ll go online to look for the information, or they’ll talk to their friends and they might not be getting the accurate information that they need and they deserve,” Biundo said.
Read the full story on FOX San Antonio and MSN.