Study Examines States’ STD Prevention Spending

PRLog (Press Release) - Dec 08, 2008 -
States spend a staggering 14.7 billion dollars each year to treat new cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STD), and a new study by the American Social Health Association (ASHA) finds much more can be done to stem the epidemic.

With 19 million new STD infections each year in the U.S. (a rate of 36 every minute), it might be surprising that states invest on average only $0.23 per capita for STD prevention. “States don’t realize that investing in STD prevention would reduce significant costs in treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and for their health consequences,” says Dr. Beth Meyerson, the co-director of the study.  Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that in 2006, the U.S. spent $773.68 in treatment costs for every reported case of an STD. The ASHA study found that on average states fund less than ¼ of their STD prevention effort. Don Clark, Executive Director of the National Coalition of STD Directors says “As we noted in an earlier report, preventing STDs depends in large part upon State and local public health infrastructures.  Adequate state funding is essential to our STD prevention and control efforts.”

This study is the first of its kind to document what states are doing to fund STD prevention. ASHA president and CEO Lynn Barclay says “We believe investments in STI prevention programs are cost-effective, and are hopeful policy makers will utilize the findings from this research as they consider the specific resources needed for STI control in their own states. This is a wonderful opportunity to be proactive in addressing a critical epidemic that disproportionately impacts women and communities of color.”

In addition to measuring the financial indicators of state support for STD prevention, the ASHA research team also looked at state policies to enhance STD prevention efforts. “The sad fact is that the state policy environment for public health and STD prevention generally is less than hospitable to good health and prevention,” Meyerson said.  Several basic public health policies such as prenatal testing for STDs and electronic laboratory reporting of sexually transmitted infections were in place by less than half of the states.

The report as well as individual state profiles can be found on the website of the American Social Health Association at http://www.ashastd.org/stdpreventionfunding/.

The American Social Health Association (ASHA) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1914 to improve the health of individuals, families, and communities, with a focus on educating about and preventing sexually transmitted infections.  ASHA’s educational web sites include
http://www.ashastd.org/ and http://www.iwannaknow.org/ (teen site).