By James Wood

Cypress Health Region sounding alarm over chlamydia cases

Jun 23, 2017 | 10:12 AM

An increasing number of sexually transmitted infections (STI’s) has the health authority concerned in Cypress Health Region.

On Thursday afternoon, the region issued a bulletin to the public, advising residents to be aware of the issue, with a focus on teenagers and young adults. According to the bulletin, the number of STI’s across the province are on the rise, with chlamydia being the most common diagnosis.

“Our data monitoring tools indicate that chlamydia is the most commonly reported STI in the Cypress Health Region,” said Dr.David Torr, the consulting health officer for the region.

“Teenagers and young adults in our region account for the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea. These rates are an emerging health issue in our region, especially those in younger age categories.”

The bulletin stated that over 70 per cent of chlamydia cases in Cypress were in that age group.

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Speaking with CHAT News, Torr said that across the province, around 500 new cases of chlamydia were appearing each month, with Cypress having a similar proportion.

“It fluctuates, for us,” said Torr.

“That’s where we have an added concern. If we see 20 cases this month, and we see 10 cases the next month, we may see 30 cases the month after. We tend to work with the provincial number, because when that’s taken as a whole, we find that over the year, we’re pretty much in sync with that.”

Torr said the province had around 6000 STI cases per year, with around two to three hundred per year in Cypress.

“For me, one case of STI is one too many.”

As for why the rise was happening, Torr said there were “different schools of thought” on that question, with the possibility of people being less cautious than in years past.

“Social media makes it much easier, or what people see on tv, make them more conducive to these kinds of habits,” said Torr.

He indicated it would be best for residents to have a dialogue with health providers on the issue, while the providers themselves do outreach to mitigate the problem.

“We need to help, and work together to enable reduction of these illnesses in our own community, and those youth and young adults,” said Torr.

For more information on STI’s, a link provided in the bulletin has been included below.

https://cypresshealth.ca/programs-services/public-health/public-health-nursing/communicable-disease-prevention-and-management/