Posted on September 15, 2011

Sexually Transmitted Disease: How to Fight Frighteningly High Rates of Infection

Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2011

Chlamydia rates among young African American women in L.A. County have reached alarming levels: 8.7% of all black teenagers ages 15 to 19 have the sexually transmitted disease. Gonorrhea rates are lower but still troublingly high among African American girls and women. Rates among Latino girls and women also are above average.

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Chlamydia is easily curable with antibiotics, but if it is allowed to spread undetected, it can cause a host of potentially dangerous health problems, especially to the fetus of a pregnant woman. {snip}

The county’s well-regarded “I Know” campaign is one smart approach. It provides free home testing kits to women, who can mail in their tests and receive the results by Internet. But not everyone has Internet access. So on Monday, the county and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas are kicking it up a notch by placing dedicated kiosks throughout his district that will allow women to order the kits online and get the results as well.

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