Danielle Server
Innerbody, an online guide for medical and wellness testing, released a study Oct. 22 that created a list of the top 100 cities tested for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), focusing on the recent data submitted by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and looked for recurring trends and information to put together the list.
“The CDC, our government agency that monitors many health ailments particularly, updates their statistics mostly twice a year and they spit out raw data,” Eric Rodriguez, the managing editor of Innerbody, said. “We like to collect all of that information and overlay that with census data for the various retro regions and add up all the cases for the diseases that they cover. We take all of the cities and see how they change every year.”
The researchers, Rodriguez and Tim Barclay, found no Wyoming city was on the list. According to the CDC, Wyoming has among the lowest STD rates in the country, ranking 45th out of the 50 states in the United States.
“The interesting thing about Wyoming is that Wyoming has pretty low STD rates, and no cities came upon our screen.” Rodriguez said. “Wyoming can be considered a bit rural compared to New York or California, but you have Alaska, and Alaska is ranked number one.”
Wyoming has 366 cases per 100,000 people. The CDC currently has Albany County reporting a total of 2,447 STD cases including 1,877 cases of Chlamydia, 519 cases of Gonorrhea and 51 cases of Syphilis.
“However, despite this relatively low rate, it is still very important all sexually active adults get tested for STDs at least once per year,” Rodriguez said. “ STD infections can persist for an extended period of time, and most people are not aware they are infected until advanced symptoms appear. When caught early, however, most STDs can be cured or at least managed with proper treatment.”
On Sept. 25, the Student Health department partnered with other health departments around Wyoming to put on a free STD testing event. The event went along with the CDC’s campaign “Get Yourself Talking, Get Yourself Tested”, testing for chlamydia, gonorrhea and HIV. Participation rates have been increasing since it started in 2013 as more and more people start taking their sexual health seriously.
“Even though a place like Wyoming may not have an epidemic, it still means it’s important to get tested every once and awhile,” Rodriguez said.
Although the event is over, students can head to the Student Health Center, a knowyo testing site, or other places Laramie such as Laramie Reproductive Health and Albany County Health, to get tested today.
