Anyone engaging in sexual activity with someone below the Mason-Dixon line has high odds of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Mississippi and Louisiana are the two states with the highest sexually transmitted disease rates, CDC data obtained by the Daily Mail reveals. For every 79 people in Mississippi, one person will be exposed to a sexually transmitted disease.
In Louisiana, 1,160 sexually transmitted disease cases exist per 100,000 people.
The ten states with the highest sexually transmitted diseases are Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, New Mexico, and North Carolina.
The CDC sees no signs of sexually transmitted diseases slowing, as more than 2.5 million cases were reported in 2021.
Between 2020 and 2021, gonorrhea rates increased by more than 4 percent. Meanwhile, syphilis cases skyrocketed by 32 percent.
In South Dakota, reports of syphilis went from 41 cases in 2016 to 785 cases in 2021 — a 1,800 percent increase. Many of these cases were reported in tribal lands with limited access to health care.
Healthcare officials also point to the spike in cases, which results from about half of syphilis and chlamydia patients being asymptomatic.
According to Leandro Mena, MD, MPH, director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention, solutions to the epidemic are becoming more accessible:
For the first time in decades, we’re seeing promising new STI interventions on the horizon, but these alone will not solve this epidemic. It will take many of us working together to effectively use new and existing tools, to increase access to quality sexual healthcare services for more people, and to encourage ongoing innovation and prioritization of STI prevention and treatment in this country.
Sex education is mandated in only 38 states and in Washington, DC. A study conducted by the Journal of Marriage and Family found teens who signed abstinence contracts were less likely to engage in safe sex practices such as condoms once they became sexually active.
“Abstinence pledgers are more likely to receive cultural messages downplaying the effectiveness of condoms and contraceptives as well as to be exposed to the framing of premarital sexual activity as a form of failure,” the report found.
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