ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Alaska a nation the highest rate of infection chlamydia and gonorrhea rate ranked second as sexually transmitted diseases spread in rural areas, according to the Division of public health of Alaska.
A case 6,026 total bacterial disease chlamydia infection have been reported in Alaska in 2010, an increase of 13% in the previous year. The rate of 849 per 100,000 inhabitants of Alaska is more than twice the national rate of 417, said the Department.
Reported cases of gonorrhea were $ 1,273 in 2010, an increase of 23% and the counter to a national trend of reduced gonococcal infection, said the State. Rate of Alaska was 179 per 100,000 population, compared to a national rate of 99.
Rates partly reflect the demographics of Alaska, according to the program Coordinator Susan Jones, HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in the State.
"The burden of chlamydia and gonorrhea is in the young population," said Jones. "Alaska on average has a population of young compared to most States."
Diseases are also common among ethnic minorities. Rural areas of the State with the worst rates of infection were in large part of the indigenous peoples of Alaska, she said.
No treatment in a timely manner in these rural areas adds to the problem, said Jones.
The Medical Council of Alaska has recently adopted a change of rule allowing physicians to prescribe medicine for sexual partners of infected patients, even if these partners are not examined, she said.
Chlamydia infections increase nationwide, but not as dramatically as in Alaska, Jones said, because the symptoms are less alarming or noticeable to those infected.
"Probably 85 percent of people who have chlamydia will know never it," said Jones.
Even without symptoms, chlamydia can have serious consequences, including pelvic inflammatory disease leading to infertility in women, Jones, said.
"It is not a benign infection," she said.
(Edition by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Bohan)
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