MANSFIELD — Sexually transmitted diseases have declined about 28 percent in Richland County since 2019, according to the latest available statistics from Richland Public Health.
That’s in marked contrast to national numbers on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and may be related to a three-year grant awarded to RPH in 2019 to help educate youth in danger of more at-risk behavior.
STIs, or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), are infections that are passed from one person to another through sex.
According to the newly released RPH annual report, there were 622 reported cases of STI in Richland County in 2023 — 408 instances of chlamydia, 170 cases of gonorrhea and 44 cases of syphilis.
Those total numbers have declined annually since 2019, when there were 865 STIs. Richland Public Health recorded 647 cases of chlamydia, 214 cases of gonorrhea and two instances of syphilis that year.
In 2020, there were 780 STI cases in Richland County, which declined to 696 in 2021 and 622 in 2022.
According to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in 2023, STIs across the country hit a record-high in 2022 for an eighth year in a row.
“The data shows a 74 percent increase in syphilis over five years, as well as 2,800 congenital syphilis cases in 2021, including 220 that resulted in infant deaths,” the CDC said.
(Below is a PDF file with the 2023 Richland Public Health annual report. The report has a myriad of local public health information, including vital statistics on births and deaths, details on environmental health and also information on public health nursing and the local WIC program.)
Federal grant aimed at reducing STIs
In 2019, RPH received a three-year grant from the Ohio Department of Youth Services Personal Responsibility Education Program worth $300,000 annually.
PREP is a federally-funded program to “provide evidence-based adult preparation curriculum to youth between the ages of 14 and 21 who are in foster care, group homes, independent living, juvenile justice or alternative schools,” RPH said in 2019.
“With this segment of the youth population being more likely to engage in risky behaviors, they are more likely to contract a sexually transmitted infection, become teen parents and/or have a higher level of difficulty transitioning into adulthood,” the agency said when the grant was announced.
The grant was to provide training to staff across a 20-county area, including Ashland and Crawford counties, to implement the PREP curriculum with youth they serve.
When the grant was announced, Dr. Julie Chaya was then the director of community health and prevention services at RPH.
“Preparing and supporting our youth to grow up to be responsible, healthy and successful adults is crucial to the advancement of our community said Chaya, now the RPH health commissioner.
“The investment in our area’s youth provides them the opportunity to critically think about the personal decisions and life choices they now make affect how they experience adulthood,” she said at the time.
