Posts Tagged ‘STIs’

New Mpox Awareness Campaign for Summer ’23

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023

On Monday, May 1, 2023, the New York State Department of Health debuted a new Mpox awareness campaign and health advisory. Cases of Mpox are currently low in our area, but the NYSDOH issued this update to stave off a resurgence during warmer weather. Mpox is spread primarily through personal contact with an infected person, and we all know that personal contact is more likely in summer (temperatures climb, people emerge from their homes, and clothes tend to come off).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also predicts that Mpox cases could resurge because the target populations have low immunity.

Vaccines against Mpox are available. Contact our Mpox Wellness Coaching program for assistance in receiving a two-dose vaccine.

What’s New

New York has added Mpox to its list of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This means that Mpox care, specifically vaccination, is available to adolescents under the age of 18 without requiring parental consent.

Vaccines

The JYNNEOS vaccine is approved by the FDA and requires two doses, administered 28 days apart, in order to be most effective. One dose, though, is better than zero.

Vaccines are recommended for:

  • Those with known or suspected exposure to someone with Mpox
  • Those with a sex partner in the previous two weeks who was diagnosed with Mpox
  • Those who identify as gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men, as well as transgender, nonbinary, or gender-diverse person who in the past six months has had any of the following:
    • A new diagnosis of one or more STIs (e.g., chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis)
    • More than one sex partner
  • Those who have had any of the following in the past six months:
    • Sex at a commercial sex venue (e.g., sex club or bathhouse)
    • Sex related to a large commercial event or in a geographic area (e.g., city or country) where Mpox transmission is occurring
    • Persons living with HIV (PLWH) or other causes of immune suppression who had recent or anticipate future risk of Mpox exposure from any of the above scenarios
  • Those who engage in transactional sex (exchanging sex for money, drugs or other valuables)
  • Those who have or anticipate attending private or public sex parties

Our Mpox Wellness Coaching can connect you with a vaccine provider at Cornerstone Family Healthcare or a Health Department near you.

Post-Exposure Prophylaxis

If you believe you were exposed to Mpox and did not get a vaccine yet, getting the vaccine may prevent you from infection or lessen the severity of symptoms. Act fast! Get a vaccine within 4 days of your exposure may reduce the likelihood of infection. If you get the vaccine between 4- and 14-days post-exposure, it may make your symptoms less.

STI Rates Rose In 2022

Monday, April 3rd, 2023

Syphilis rates increased 26% in 2021, for a second year in a row, and the “Big Three” STIs (sexually transmitted infections) racked up a record 2.5 million reported cases among Americans. That was at a time when we were supposed to be “socially distancing” and quarantining. COVID-19 was one of several infections that had banner years in 2020 and 2021.

Of course, most STIs are not fatal, except for syphilis if left untreated. Getting and having an STI carries a truckload of shame and stigma, which fuels new infections because the infected patient is less likely to tell a sexual partner of their condition. Another factor in the not-as-bad column: STIs are treatable and curable—except for herpes.

One for the not-so-hot column, though: infection with one STI makes you more susceptible to others, including HIV, which is also potentially fatal if left unmedicated.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, these are the 2021 statistics:
• Chlamydia: 1,628,397 cases – up 3%
• Gonorrhea: 696,764 cases – up 2.8%
• Syphilis: 171,074 cases – a 26% increase, for the highest number of cases in 75 years
• Overall (chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis): 2.5 million cases

What is not reflected in these numbers: the Mpox (monkeypox) epidemic, which has exploded in the past two years. HVCS has a dedicated Mpox wellness coaching team ready to answer questions and help clients connect to vaccines.

You may be asking, why are STI rates rising? Condom usage is dropping, spurred by the greater use of PrEP to prevent HIV. More and more of our clients report that they use barrier protection less often since they’re taking PrEP pills. While safer from HIV, those who go condom-less risk exposing themselves to STIs.

Scientists also posit that the ongoing opioid and meth epidemics are leading to more HIV and Hepatitis C infections among people who share needles, and the spread of other STIs as user trade drugs for sex that is often unprotected.

Leandro Mena, the director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, was quoted by POLITICO: “Over two decades of level funding, when you account for inflation and population changes, have effectively decreased the buying power of public health dollars and resulted in the reduction of STI services at the local level. That reduction in screening, treatment and partner services likely contributed to these STI increases.”

April is National STI Awareness Month. We’re using this opportunity to call attention to our free STI testing services, available to anyone who doesn’t know their STI status. The best way to reverse the rise of STI rates is to increase knowledge of infection rates—knowledge really is power! To set up your appointment, visit our Testing Request page.

My STI Experience

Saturday, April 1st, 2023

An anonymous HVCS employee’s remembrance in observance of STI Awareness Month

During my junior year of college, I worked off campus at a big-box retail store with a closeted guy named Orin*. We occasionally but infrequently hooked up, usually at his apartment. One night my roommate was away, and I invited Orin back to my dorm room for a hook-up. I usually had a stash of condoms, but I was out that night—so we both shrugged and threw caution to the wind. As we had had sex before, I thought, “I didn’t catch anything last time, and he looks healthy.” Never mind that “last time” was a few months ago, and it was almost pitch-black in my room.

Within a few days, urinating felt like a shower of needles. It was a sharp, tingly pain that made me dread the next bathroom break. I powered on through classes and work, determined to ignore the slivers of agony and refusing to admit that I’d made a mistake. I also avoided Orin, though I wanted to demand, “What did you do to me? Aren’t you feeling this pain too?”

Feeling Worse

I traveled to Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with my family. The burning in my urethra started to linger long after urinating, and I struggled to stay in “celebratory holiday mode” as the weekend dragged on. We had lunch at a fish n chips restaurant that was touted as a favorite among locals for its fresh catches. Within hours, I hovered over the toilet bowl, returning the meal, and a lot of other stuff, to the sea. I spent the rest of the holiday in my brother’s bed, shivering, in growing groin agony, popping Tylenol to lower my fever in between trips to the bathroom to puke. My sister-in-law endured the same symptoms, camped out in a spare bedroom. Mom’s verdict: food poisoning. For me, it was all coming out the top—and nothing, absolutely nothing, was coming out the bottom.

By Sunday when I returned to campus, my fever had abated but what I strongly suspected to be a sexually transmitted infection continued with a fury. I imagined my bladder swollen and red, angered by some tiny spirochete armed with a sword of ice. My intestines felt hard to the touch, and I had no interest in food of any kind. (Younger me also was blind to basic over-the-counter constipation remedies, for some reason.) My birthday falls soon after Thanksgiving, and I turned down all invitations to celebrate it at the local nightclub.

Later that week during my evening shift, I finally felt something happening in my nether regions. Warm liquid blossomed in my underwear, and I dashed to the restroom. It turned out to be a small amount, but it was red: I had bled and it had soaked through onto my jeans. Completely humiliated, I tied an apron around me, backwards, and fought with my boss to leave early. When he objected strongly, I told him the truth: I had a blood stain on my pants—“Don’t make me show you.” He let me leave.

Seeking Medical Care At Last

Finally, I was ready to go to the Student Health office. The regular doctor, whom I’d been to a few times over the years, was out, and a substitute provider was filling in. Now gripped with double the embarrassment of having to admit my mistake to a stranger, I told my story. “Well, sounds like an STD,” she said. “I’ll have to do a culture to be sure.” Obtaining a culture (back then)** involved many men’s worst nightmare: a swab up the urethra for a scraping. I endured this humiliation, zipped up, and went back to my dorm to wait for the test results.

The sub doctor called the next morning, and in essence she said: “You tested negative. Whatever you’re feeling is probably from the food poisoning and should go away soon.” End of call. I soldiered on through the week, steeled against the pain and discomfort. My bowels felt impacted—wasn’t food poisoning supposed to clear everything out?

On Monday morning, I got a call from the usual campus doctor. “I reviewed notes on the cases that came in while I was out, and yours stood out. Can you come over right now?” When I sat on the exam table, she said, “I think my sub was wrong. I think you do have an STD. I don’t know what she did wrong with the culture, but all your symptoms point to an STD. The burning when you pee, the constipation. You have a case of anal gonorrhea. Here’s a prescription for azithromycin.”

Within a day of taking the antibiotic, the burning sensation faded. The constipation took longer to resolve, but it did go away eventually. A friend with a keen eye spotted the medicine bottle on my dresser and asked about it, and I finally confessed: I had unprotected sex. He let loose a torrent of disappointment, admonishment, and concern. “You know better than that. Of all people, you? For a one night stand?” I explained that it wasn’t a one-nighter per se, which didn’t help my case. “I hope it’s a never again,” he said. “Did the doctor order an HIV test? No? Well, you need to get one ASAP.

Confrontation

A few nights later, I wound up closing the store with Orin, and I finally worked up the nerve to say, “You gave me gonorrhea.” He wrinkled his nose and said, “It wasn’t from me. I feel fine.” Which makes perfect sense when you learn that many men with STDs are asymptomatic. I pushed back, stating that he had been my only sexual partner in the past month. He kept denying it. “Get tested,” I advised.

After two weeks of suffering, mixed with a case of food poisoning, a wrong medical diagnosis, an excruciating outing to my boss, and a missed birthday, I resolved to use condoms for every sexual encounter. I took an entire class on AIDS issues to understand better the science behind transmission and risk. That class led me to volunteering for HVCS. After I graduated, that volunteer work turned into a paid job.

All the literature and articles say, “it only takes one condomless encounter,” and while mine wasn’t technically “just one” with the same guy, the risk was certainly there. The HIV test came back negative, and from that point on, for at least a decade, I sero-sortied: only sleeping with men who were HIV-negative. There wasn’t, and still isn’t, a realistic way to sero-sort STD status, since it’s so hard to know if, and when, you have an STD.

Lessons Learned

Looking back now, I wish I could say I “slipped up” on safer sex for burning passion, or drunken abandon, or some other (ultimately meaningless) excuse, but the truth was, changing the plan in favor of safer, non-penetrative acts was simply inconvenient. I didn’t have a great reason, other than laziness. The sheer stupidity of that (I’m allowed to call my actions stupid, aren’t I?) gave me insight into how others cope with the specter of HIV and other STDs. There are so many possible reasons for forgoing a condom: it’s very difficult for disease prevention programs, like those at HVCS, to give clients a road map to navigate all of those scenarios. With STIs (the more modern term for STDs) on the rise, empowering clients to be self-advocates for their sexual health is likely the best defense. Arm up with the facts—and take this post as a cautionary tale I hope you never have to experience for yourself.

*Name changed to protect the closeted.

** Today’s STI tests use a blood or urine sample.

STI Awareness Carnival

Tuesday, January 24th, 2023

 

 

Brought to you bySTI Awareness Carnival

 

 

Brought to you by HVCS, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, and the Newburgh Armory Unity Center.

New Podcast Episode: Testing for STDs: What You Need to Know

Wednesday, February 26th, 2020

Peer Health Alliance Podcast

In this episode of the PHA (Peer Health Alliance) Podcast, the team discusses all you need to know about getting tested for HIV, Hep C and other Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Listen and subscribe on iTunes and Spotify.

NYS Issues Urgent Warning About Syphilis

Monday, October 12th, 2015

Infectious syphilis is increasing in New York State, with a 13% increase in New York City and a 44% increase in upstate New York between 2013 and 2014. In many areas, the number of cases has more than doubled in this period. The highest burden of cases is seen in New York City and surrounding counties (which would include the Hudson Valley). Cases are mainly among males, especially gay men and men who have sex with men.

We encourage everyone to be aware of the risk factors, signs, and symptoms of syphilis. Having unprotected sex, multiple sex partners, or a new sex partner can all increase the risk of syphilis infection, as well as other STI’s and HIV.To learn more about syphilis, visit our RPI team or http://bit.ly/NYSDOHSyph. Call (845) 471-0707 x12 to schedule a test, or stop in at one of our testing events. You can also check out the basics on our website.

 

Service Providers’ Brief About the Female Condom (Webinar)

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

A Service Providers’ Brief about the Female Condom

This two-hour webinar will provide an overview of the female condom and describe the role service providers’ play in promoting its use. The female condom is the only female-initiated, physical barrier methods currently available, and as such is an important tool when exploring safer sex options.

As a result of this training, participants will be able to:

· Identify the major findings from the New York State Female Condom Research Project

· Identify values and attitudes that impact provider ability to effectively promote the female condom

· Identify the advantages of female condom use and describe ways to motivate client interest and use.

· Identify and address common barriers to female condom use as related to insertion difficulties and problems with use during sex.

· Discuss strategies for clients to negotiate female condom use with partners.

• Discuss the FC being used as a Receptive Partner Condom in the MSM community.

 

Registration info (please register at both links):

  1. https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7366973460857598466
  2. http://hivtrainingny.org/Account/LogOn?crs=1262

Webinars on HIV & Medicaid, Viral Suppression & PrEP Now Available Any Time

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014

Exciting news for service providers or anyone interested in learning more about complex HIV-related issues! Our Regional Training Center now has archived webinar trainings available online, so you can catch up on the latest protocols at your convenience. All archived trainings are available for the public free of charge at any time. Check out our brand-new page of archived webinars and learn something new! If you need any additional information, please call (914) 785-8278.

All trainings are free and open to the public.

https://www.hudsonvalleycs.org/training-center-webinars/

Introduction to HIV, STI’s and Viral Hepatitis

Friday, September 12th, 2014

This one day introductory training will prepare non-physician health and human services providers to address HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and viral hepatitis in an integrated, client-centered manner. The training will review the similarities and differences in transmission, screening, available treatments and needed support services for each of the diseases. The training will emphasize the connection between these diseases and the skills needed to effectively interact with clients whose sexual or substance using behaviors place them at risk for HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis.

As a result of this training, participants will be able to:

• Recall data showing the overlap of cases of HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis;
• State the rationale and importance of integration of services related to HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis;
• State the similarities and differences in how HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis are transmitted;
• Deliver an integrated prevention message for HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis;
• Provide clients with basic information about the spectrum of illness, testing and treatment for HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis; and
• Link clients to needed HIV, STI, and viral hepatitis testing, treatment and support services.

Prerequisite: There is no prerequisite for this training. It is intended for individuals who have not had prior training in HIV, STIs or viral hepatitis.
Audience: This introductory training is for non-physician health and human services providers who will be responsible for delivering prevention, care or support services related to HIV, STIs and viral hepatitis.

Group Facilitation Skills for STD/HIV Prevention Interventions, Day 2

Thursday, March 27th, 2014

This two-day training will help to increase providers’ confidence, knowledge and skills in facilitating groups, particularly for group level HIV/STD prevention interventions (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evidenced-based interventions).

As a result of this training participants will be able to:

  • Increase their understanding of group process and how it influences behavior change;
  • Identify qualities of an effective group facilitator;
  • Increase skills in facilitating STD/HIV prevention intervention groups;
  • Identify strategies for handling group problems; and
  • Learn the importance of training, supporting and evaluating group facilitators.

Prerequisite: None

Audience: All health and human service providers who conduct group level STD/HIV prevention interventions.

To register, visit www.hivtrainingny.org. Please note that you must register for BOTH days of this training.