Black Hawk County Public Health responds to rising syphilis cases

BLACK HAWK COUNTY, Iowa (KWWL) — Today at a Black Hawk County Board of Health meeting, the board voted to pass a resolution to encourage providers to test sexually active people for syphilis, in response to rising rates of the STI. The resolution primarily asks providers to offer syphilis testing as they would gonorrhea or chlamydia while rates are high. The new CDC recommendation specifically goes into effect when the rate of infection of women from 15 to 44 is higher than 4.6 per 100,000 in the county. When the rate is lower or equal to 4.6%, providers are still recommended to identify risk factors and conduct testing if needed. Though they are using women to determine the rate, the recommendation for testing is for everyone who is sexually active. Sarah Mergenthaler is the Disease Surveillance and Investigations Manager at Black Hawk Public Health. She says Black Hawk County is well above the threshold for the recommendation. “The county level map that the CDC has released, has placed Black Hawk County having a rate of 18.1 per 100,000 population, for primary and secondary syphilis for women between the ages of 15 and 44 years old,” she explained. The CDC recommendation...