[Disease] An Outbreak of Epic Proportions
It is now time for the final Action Project of the Winter term! This Action Project is for my STEAM class, Disease. In this unit, we have been learning about the CDC and other Disease response organizations. We talked to Dr. Richard Taylor from the EIS and Dr. David Payne from the LLS, both suborganizations of the CDC. We learned about Rø and how that affects us all during the current events. For this AP, we were given a scenario with the outbreak of a disease and were tasked with analyizing it. We then had to describe possible solutions to prevent future outbreaks from occuring. I worked with N.M. and we are extremely proud of the final product. Here it is!
Our Scenario is an epidemic of STDs in the US hit record high numbers for the 6th year in a row, according to compiled data from 2019. This includes 130,000 cases of Chlamydia. The reported cases were not distributed evenly across demographic groups and disproportionately affected non-Hispanic Black populations, women, and men who have sex with other men.
Chlamydia trachomatis, more commonly known as just Chlamydia, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in Chicago. It can affect males, females, and intersex people. You are able to get Chlamydia through oral, anal, or vaginal sex. It is also possible for a pregnant person with Chlamydia to pass on the infection to their child. Often, Chlamydia appears without symptoms, so people pass it without ever knowing they had it. Below is graphic that shows how Chlamydia acts once infected. This assumes you have noticed symptoms and are being treated.
Chlamydia affects the body in a number of ways depending on where you get it. Most often, it does not develop symptoms or the symptoms are so mild that they go unnoticed. In male sex organs, common symptoms include, “a discharge from their penis, a burning sensation when peeing, and pain and swelling in one or both testicles (although this is less common)” (CDC). In female sex organs, common symptoms include, “an abnormal vaginal discharge and burning sensation when peeing” (CDC), as well as, “Painful sexual intercourse in women [and] bleeding between periods and after sex in women” (Mayoclinic). In people assigned female at birth, Chlamydia can also spread to the uterus and fallopian tubes if untreated and cause infertility.
All sexes can also have Chlamydia in the rectum, throat, or eyes. When Chlamydia infects the rectum, common symptoms include, “Rectal pain, Discharge, and Bleeding” (CDC). When Chlamydia infects the throat, it most often does not develop symptoms. When Chlamydia infects the eyes, common symptoms include redness and discharge.
Chlamydia is most likely to affect young women. 61% of Chlamydia cases come from women aged 15-24 years. It is important to take into consideration, however, that far more women get tested for Chlamydia than other genders. This is what likely makes the data show women as having more cases. Another group of people Chlamydia is more likely to affect is non-Hispanic Black people. This disproportionate section of the dataset is likely because of an unfortunate lack of reproductive health education.
As you can see by these graphs a lot of the darker areas line up. Many public schools in Chicago don’t receive ample sexual education, and even if they do, fewer people than the national average complete high school in Chicago. Especially so in certain neighborhoods. North Lawndale for example, is fairly dark on both graphs and has an extremely high percentage of the population being non-Hispanic Black. All of this means that non-Hispanic Black people are more likely to be in a low-income and uneducated neighborhood and are therefore more likely to not receive sexual education and finally are more likely to have an STI like Chlamydia because of it.
The final group that is more likely to get Chlamydia is men who have sex with other men (MSM), no matter their sexuality. The CDC says this is because they are, “being tested and diagnosed with a chlamydial infection due to increased availability of urine testing and extragenital screening, increased transmission among men, or both”. It is basically the same reason as women, men who have sex with other men are simply more likely to get diagnosed with Chlamydia because they get tested more than men who do not have sex with other men.
Recently, there have been record-high numbers for the number of people with Chlamydia for the sixth year in a row. This is an outbreak, or rather a series of outbreaks, of unexpected proportions. They are mostly a response to the fact that many people, intentionally or otherwise, are not using the proper means to protect themselves. Chicago has a reputation for being the most crime-ridden city in the country. This also means that many areas are uneducated and are unable to acquire the proper protection within a reasonable distance. All of these factors lead to Chlamydia running rampant, but luckily there are things we can do.
A number of solutions to the issue can be done by you. Use condoms; when condoms are used properly during sexual contact they reduce the chance of sexually transmitted infection. Limit your number of sex partners, the more sex partners you change the higher the risk is of getting infected. Getting regular screenings is an important thing to do especially if you are sexually active. Douching is when you clean the inside of the anus or vagina, but you should avoid douching because it can take away some of the good bacteria in the vagina or anus, causing a higher risk of getting infected.
Use condoms:
If there is a penis involved in sexual contact, then use a male latex condom properly.
If there is a vagina involved in sexual contact, then use a female polyurethane condom properly.
Do not use two condoms together.
Limit your number of sex partners:
Do not change sex partners without testing for STI’s.
Limit your sex partners by telling your least favorite ones to go away.
Have open conversations with your sex partner(s) about how often they change sex partners.
Get regular screenings:
If you are sexually active, talk to your doctor about how often you should be screened for Chlamydia or other sexually transmitted infections.
If you have multiple sex partners, talk to your doctor about how often you should be screened for Chlamydia or other sexually transmitted infections.
Research screening/testing options, because in semi-populated areas, there is most likely many free screening/testing locations.
Go get tested! Get screenings for Chlamydia and other sexually transmitted infections at the locations that you researched.
Recommend screening locations to your sex partner(s).
Avoid douching:
Avoid douching.
Ask your sex partner(s) to avoid douching.
Some solutions to the Chlamydia outbreaks are socially considerate. Communicate to your sex partner(s) about your history with STI’s, it’s important to let them know before you engage in sexual contact, so that you can know the situation to make the right decisions. Make sure to bring condoms, if neither of you have a condom then you shouldn’t be engaging in sexual contact, because condoms reduce the risk of getting STI’s. Communicate to your sex partner(s) how often you engage in sexual contact, and communicate to your sex partner(s) how many sex partners you have. This recomendation is so you can decide if it is the best decision to engage in sexual contact.
Communicate to your sex partner(s) about your history with STIs:
Tell them about your history with STI’s before you engage in sexual contact.
Ask them about their history with STI’s before you engae in sexual contact.
Bring condoms:
Get condoms.
Keep them with you to be prepared.
Take them out when you are going to engage in sexual contact.
Below are some recommendations for the mayor of Chicago to help the Chlamydia outbreaks. Make condoms accessible to everyone, if everyone has easy access to condoms there will be fewer STIs. Make condoms free, this will make it easier for anyone to get condoms. Recommend that people use condoms because that will get more people to actually go get condoms. Provide free and high-quality condoms in public bathrooms and government buildings. Recommend that people get screenings, it will give people the push of actually getting tested. Many people do not know where their nearest clinic is. Fund local advertisement so more people are aware and therefore have access. Provide free and accessible treatment to all who need it, without shame or humiliation. We need free healthcare in the US, especially for potentially lifelong issues like Chlamydia. Another thing the city could do to protect from outbreaks is to fund better sexual education in schools. Far too many kids don’t realize they aren’t being protected during sex until they are already infected, and then they might be permanently affected.
Rø refers to the reproductive rate of a disease. There is also RøE, which is the effective reproductive rate of a disease, or how much the disease spreads when you take into account external factors. The Rø of Chlamydia is 0.55. This means that if proper precautions were being taken, Chlamydia would be dying out. Unfortunately, people do not use effective precautions against Chlamydia and other STIs, and so the RøE has not been lower than one. Chlamydia continues to rise and if people wore condoms more often and if people got more screenings, it would not be an issue anymore.
Works Cited
“Chlamydia.” NHS Choices, NHS, 2021, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chlamydia/symptoms/#:~:text=Most%20people%20who%20have%20chlamydia,disappear%20after%20a%20few%20days.
“City Health Dashboard.” City Health Dashboard, 15 Oct. 2019, https://www.cityhealthdashboard.com/il/chicago/metric-detail?metric=11&metricYearRange=2019%2C%2B5%2BYear%2BEstimate&dataRange=city.
Potterat, J J et al. “Chlamydia transmission: concurrency, reproduction number, and the epidemic trajectory.” American journal of epidemiology vol. 150,12 (1999): 1331-9. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009965
“Symptoms and Causes.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2022, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/chlamydia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355349?page=0&citems=10&p=1.
“TIME PERIODS OF INTEREST. HIV, STDs VIRAL HEPATITIS.” North Dakota Department of Health, 2018, https://www.ndhealth.gov/hiv/Docs/CTR/TimePeriodsReference_HIVSTDsHep.pdf.
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