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WINNIPEG
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
STDs centred in city core Up to 40% of infertility cases are due to untreated chlamydia: WRHA doctor ‘Slight upward trend’ in chlamydia cases may be because more are getting tested WRHA may push for university clinics to conduct more testing JAMES TURNER/METRO
Just 17 per cent of the city’s population lives there, but Winnipeg’s core accounts for 58 per cent of gonorrhea cases and 38 per cent of chlamydia cases, recent data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority shows. The core area as defined by the WRHA includes the downtown and Point Douglas neighbourhoods. “Chlamydia and gonorrhea are more core-area diseases than they are suburban diseases,” said Dr. Pierre Plourde, chief medical officer of health with the region. “That holds for almost any communicable disease, whether you’re talking HIV (or) tuberculosis,” he said. Poverty is a major contributor to the high infection rates, Plourde said, adding chlamydia migrates into the suburbs because a person can have it go undetected for years. Gonorrhea spreads less frequently because the discomfort it causes results in people quickly going in for testing and treatment. Both diseases are easily treated. WRHA embarked last year on a major awareness campaign urging people — the target was largely those aged 18 to 25 — to “pee in a cup” and get tested for the two sexually transmitted infections. Anoth-
“We’re not alarmed … the increase is not unexpected. We’re testing more and using better tests.” DR. PIERRE PLOURDE
Consequences The consequences of untreated chlamydia can be especially insidious for women. Long-term effects of the disease include: Blindness or infections in newborns. Chronic internal inflammation. Ectopic pregnancies, which can be life-threatening. Pelvic pain.
er awareness campaign is already in the works. The region has faced worrying STI outbreaks in the recent past and has quickly gotten them under control. Two separate outbreaks of syphilis from 2003 to 2008 were defeated by “aggressive” measures by the WRHA to counteract them, Plourde said. JAMES TURNER
Dr. Pierre Plourde is a medical officer of health with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority who specializes in communicable diseases.