Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report Highlights Studies Presented at STI Conference

Several studies were presented at the 2006 National STD Prevention Conference in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday and Wednesday. Summaries appear below.

• "Burden of Repeat Chlamydia Trachomatis Infection in Young Women in New York City": Ellen Klingler of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and colleagues in two studies -- one in 2000 and a second from 2003 to 2004 -- tested nearly 40,000 women for chlamydia, reports. The researchers found that citywide, one in eight women who were diagnosed with chlamydia were reinfected within one year. The study also finds that fewer infections occur among women older than age 25 compared with women younger than age 19 (Fox, , 5/9).
  


• "Chlamydia Prevalence Among University Freshmen and Implications for Improved STI Reduction Programs on Campuses": Adelbert James, senior program associate at Emory University School of Medicine, and colleagues in April 2004 conducted a study of 789 college students in 10 universities in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. The researchers found that more than 13% of freshmen, 8% of students ages 20 to 24 and fewer than 4% of students above age 25 tested positive for chlamydia. About 9% of women and 6% of men tested positive. James said that while the data are not representative of all college students, they suggest the need for more chlamydia education and testing on college campuses (Young, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/10).
  


• "Declining Disease Prevalence in Philadelphia's Public High Schools After Four Years of a Citywide Screening and Educational Program for Chlamydia Trachomatis and Neisseria Gonorrhea": Researchers from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health examined data from a program launched in 2002 in Philadelphia public high schools, public health clinics and correctional facilities that provides routine chlamydia and gonorrhea screening. The data show that among high school students, routine screening decreased chlamydia rates 24% over the program's first three years. In addition, reported chlamydia cases citywide dropped 14% from 2003 to 2005, according to the study (Conference release, 5/9).
  


• "Increases in Oral and Anal Sexual Exposure Among Adolescents Attending STD Clinics in Baltimore": Emily Erbelding of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore and colleagues in 1994 examined the medical records of 2,598 people ages 12 to 15 who were treated at Baltimore sexually transmitted infection prevention clinics and in 2004 examined the medical records of 6,438 people of a similar age group who were treated at Baltimore STI prevention clinics. The study finds that in the past 10 years, the rate of self-reported oral sex in the previous 90 days increased from 16% to 32% among men and more than doubled among young females, from 14% to 38% (Rauscher, Reuters/Independent Online, 5/9).
  


• "Prevalence of Bacterial Vaginosis in the United States, 2001-2002": Emilia Koumans of CDC and colleagues examined a representative sample of about 2,000 women ages 14 to 49 and found that 27.4% of all U.S. women had bacterial vaginosis compared with 50.3% of non-Latina black women. The study also finds that the following factors increase risk: douching, an annual family income of less than $20,000, a previous pregnancy, being black and an increased number of sexual partners only for white women (Rauscher, , 5/10).
  


• "Prevalence of Trichomonas Vaginalis in the United States, 2001-2002": Koumans and colleagues with the same data used in the bacterial vaginosis study found that 3% of all U.S. women have trichonomiasis compared with 13.5% of non-Latina black women. "Black women were more than nine times more likely to be infected than either white women, who had a prevalence of 1.2%, or Mexican-American women, who had a prevalence of 1.5%," Koumans said (, 5/10).
  


• "Repeat Chlamydia and Gonorrhea Infection Using Case-Based Surveillance Reports and Laboratory-Based Prevalence Monitoring Data, California, 2003-2004": The California Department of Health Services in an analysis similar to that used in Klingler's study finds that at least one in 10 women who tested positive for chlamydia through the state family planning program and at a large health maintenance organization within six months contracted the infection a second time (, 5/9). The study finds that adolescent girls were most affected (Conference release, 5/9).
  


• "Self-Reported Risk History in Women Using an Internet-Based Screening Program for Chlamydia Trachomatis Using Self-Collected Vaginal Swabs Returned by Mail": Researchers at Johns Hopkins University examined a new Internet-based chlamydia screening program that enables women to collect vaginal swabs at home and return the sample to a lab by mail. According to the study, 9% of the 567 women screened in the program from July 2004 to December 2005 tested positive for chlamydia. According to the researchers, the women who opted to be tested had high rates of risky sexual behaviors, suggesting that the program reaches women who are at a higher risk of infection (Conference release, 5/9).
  


• "Sexually Transmitted Infection Screening in County Jails Is Associated With a Decrease in Community Prevalence of Gonorrhea and Chlamydia — San Francisco": Pennan Barry of the San Francisco Department of Health and colleagues at the San Francisco County Jail from 1997 to 2004 screened and treated more than 31,000 male and 11,700 female inmates for chlamydia and other STIs. To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, the researchers looked at chlamydia prevalence in the neighborhoods where the inmates formerly lived and compared them with the chlamydia prevalence in other communities. The researchers found that chlamydia among young females during the study period decreased from 15% to 8% in communities where inmates formerly lived compared with a six percentage point decline among women in neighborhoods where female inmates did not reside (, 5/9). The study finds that routine chlamydia and gonorrhea screening programs in prisons are associated with reducing the prevalence in the community (Conference release, 5/9).

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  Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/hiv. The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation, by The Advisory Board Company. © 2006 by The Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.