It’s not a pleasant subject, but the community must come to grips with African-Americans’ shockingly high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, a health official says.

“When it comes to sexually transmitted disease, people tend to shy away from the subject because it involves talking about sex,” Dr. David Holcombe, regional administrator and medical director for Region VI of the state Office of Public Health, said Tuesday at a forum in Alexandria on STDs.

“The only way to let people know of the dangers of STDs is to get the message out about them. There’s no shame in talking about ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases,” Holcombe said.

Not only does Louisiana lead the nation in the rate of syphilis and rank high in the incidence of other STDs, but African-Americans have much higher rates than their white counterparts, officials said.

Health officials and community leaders gathered Tuesday in the Alexandria Museum of Art for the forum titled “Closing the Gap: Addressing STD Disparities in the African-American Community.” They sought to spread the message on the dangers of STDs, particularly in the black community.

The forum was a collaboration with Central Louisiana AIDS Support Services and the Office of Public Health.

In addition to being first in syphilis incidence, Louisiana is No. 2 in the nation in gonorrhea, No. 3 in chlamydia and No. 4 in HIV, officials said.

A PowerPoint presentation was given on the number of STD cases.

Sexually transmitted diseases affect 15 million people each year in the United States and cost

$8.4 billion in medical costs and lost wages. By age 25, one-third of all sexually active young adults will have been infected by one or more STDs, Holcombe said.

Kevin Bonton, an Office of Public Health disease intervention specialist, talked about the number of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis cases in Rapides Parish, citing statistics from the Louisiana Office of Public Health 2009 STD annual report.

Females and males ages 15 to 29 carry the burden of STD infections, and gonorrhea rates are 20 times higher in blacks than in other minorities, Bonton said.

(2 of 2)

(Page 2 of 2)

He said individuals should discuss their sexual histories with their partners before engaging in any sexual act.

“We see a lot of African-American women getting tested for STDs but not African-American men,” Bonton said.

“So many African-American men have multiple sex partners. We recommend getting tested when a person has multiple sex partners.”

Chaquetta Johnson, Office of Public Health regional nurse consultant, showed how a female infected with an STD could pass the symptoms to her unborn child.

Johnson also talked about Pelvic Inflammatory Disease and cervical cancer.

“Eighty percent of sexually active women will be tested positive for HPV (which can lead to genital warts) in their lifetime. Congenital syphilis is on the rise 23 percent between 2005 to 2008,” Johnson said.

“I think factors like living conditions and education can play an important role in STDs. you have to educate people on STDs, and that comes from community organizations getting involved to eliminate the problem.”

Sandra Bright, nurse educator at the Huey P. Long Medical Center facility at England Airpark, said African-Americans represent 14 percent of the U.S. population, but half of HIV victims are African-Americans.

As of Dec. 31, 2009, 30,876 individuals were diagnosed with HIV-AIDS in Louisiana, Bright said.

She said 78 percent of the HIV victims in Louisiana are black.

“This is due to factors like access to care, social, economic and cultural factors. the African-American community must educate in places like home and church. Sororities and fraternities can also help educate on diseases that are killing the black population,” Bright said.