Philadelphia: America’s Next Great Chlamydia And Gonorrhea Rate-Reducing City

While the random magazine articles praising Philadelphia have fortunately died down, the city isn’t all murder and fourth quarter chokes right now.

It appears that other cities are taking the Dept. of Health’s lead on (wait for it) reducing teen rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea. An article in the New York Post explains that NYC is now basing an STD-testing program on Philly’s successful program. And we were the first to test the kiddies for STDs. What are the stats?

Chlamydia/gonorrhea infections among girls dropped to 6 percent last year from 8 percent in 2003. And among high-school boys, the rate was at 4 percent last year after being 5 percent in 2003. In all, the infection rate fell 24 percent among high-schoolers over three years.

All we need is a “T-E-S-T-I-N-G STD TESTING!” chant and we’re set.

Success in Philly could spread here [NY Post via Gawker]
Editor’s Note: By the way, the image is from an Australian health department webpage.