Alaska Group Launches Web Site Focused On STIs, Youth

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  IT / Internet / E-mail;  HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 09 Dec 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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The not-for-profit group Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium on Friday launched a Web site designed to address high sexually transmitted infection rates among the state's rural youth, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The site, called "I Know Mine," allows young people to order up to 20 no-cost condoms at once, request an appointment for STI testing, read fact sheets and personal testimonials about STIs, and submit questions to experts. In addition, people will be able to order home-testing kits for chlamydia and gonorrhea from the site starting in January. Jessica Leston, sexually transmitted disease program coordinator for the consortium, said the consortium is partnering with Johns Hopkins University, which will analyze the STI tests and deliver the results to the consortium for follow-up.

The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reports that the state has had the highest or second highest chlamydia rate in the U.S. since 2000, with about 4,860 cases reported in 2008. According to the consortium, Alaska Native women and girls have chlamydia rates that are nearly 10 times higher than the general U.S. population. Although gonorrhea rates are stable throughout Alaska as a whole, with 578 reported cases in 2008, the rates tripled in Southwest Alaska between 2007 and 2008. HIV rates historically have been low among Alaska Natives, but there has been a recent increase in both rural and urban areas, the consortium said.

The site was developed after the consortium held discussions with more than 100 young people ages 15 through 24 and community leaders in five rural communities more than two years ago, Leston said. The discussions revealed that many of the young people said they did not have access to condoms or adequate STI information. They also said they were embarrassed to discuss STI prevention and testing with health clinic workers (Hopkins/Shinohara, Anchorage Daily News, 12/4).

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