ISSUES FIRST, If you want to be Mayor support Public Health

Another serious problem that our next Mayor will have to address is the problem of Public Health as it relates to Sexually Transmitted disease. Public health will test the mettle of our next Mayor and our community response will say a lot about us as a City.
According to a 2007 report from the Center For Disease Control, Memphis ranks number One among Metropolitan Statistical Areas in reported cases per 100,000 of Chlamydia,Gonorrhea and third in rates per 100,000 in cases of syphilis.
To matters worse, among women in the Memphis Metropolitan Statistical Area between 2003 and 2007 there were 36,397 cases of Chlamydia,11,113 cases of Gonorrhea and 680 cases of Syphilis. This results in further risks to public health as well...

STD Surveillance report.

Gonorrhea and chlamydia can result in adverse outcomes of pregnancy, including neonatal ophthalmia and, in the case of chlamydia, neonatal pneumonia. Although topical prophylaxis of infants at delivery is effective for prevention of gonococcal ophthalmia neonatorum, prevention of neonatal pneumonia requires prenatal detection and treatment.

Genital infections with herpes simplex virus are extremely common, may cause painful outbreaks, and may have serious consequences for pregnant women.10

When a woman has a syphilis infection during pregnancy, she may transmit the infection to the fetus in utero. This may result in fetal death or an infant born with physical and mental developmental disabilities. Most cases of congenital syphilis are easily preventable if women are screened for syphilis and treated early during prenatal care.11

One of the issues highlighted by this is the fact that Memphis ranked number three in reports of teenagers infected with Sexually transmitted disease. Nationally Young people ages 15-24 have FIVE times the reported chlamydia rate of the general population. Young people 15-24 have FOUR times the reported rate of Gonorrhea than the general population. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows at least one in four teenage girls has contracted an infection. The most common, the human papillomavirus (HPV), is linked to cervical cancer later in life.

In addition according to the CDC, "Among adolescent women entering juvenile corrections facilities, the Corrections STD Prevalence Monitoring Project identified a median facility-specific chlamydia positivity rate of 14.3% (range: 2.5% to 32.1%) (Table A) and a median gonorrhea positivity rate of 5.3% (range: 0.0% to 13.9%) (Table C). Among adolescent men entering juvenile corrections facilities, the median facility-specific chlamydia positivity rate was 5.7% (range: 0.0% to 14.2%) and the median gonorrhea positivity rate was 1.0% (range: 0.0% to 4.5%)."



Public Health and the rate of STD's in our population is a national tragedy, and one that all branches of government should collectively come together to address. Despite the hard work and sincere concern of many individuals in government,community organizations and the medical sector, the efforts to stem the tide of the rates of infection are simply overwhelmed. The true tragedy in our Public Health crisis,is that even if our STD problem could be solved with a wave of a magic ward, that there would still remain the huge health related problems of nutritional poverty,obesity,infant mortality, and the previously mentioned problem of Lead poisoning within our communities. There is so much work to be done.

There are sadly no easy answers, but there are things the next Mayor can do either directly, or by virtue of the bully pulpit of the office, encourage and raise public awareness on this issue and lobby County and State government.

*Work in better concert with the Memphis and Shelby County Health department and Juvenile Court to assure that the State mandated STD screenings of incarcerated inmates within our criminal justice system is actually being done on intake and release. Reports from several community and criminal justice sources inform me that this is not being done as vigilantly as it should be.
As Juvenile Court is not a long term holding facility such testing is not state mandated, but care is available for infected youths if staff is aware.

*Provide better access to condoms to the general public, especially in high risk populations. Condoms should be available in prison, where a high rate of infection takes place. Prison populations have higher risks of infection,are transitory and many leave prison with an infection who are either unaware or too ashamed to admit the reasons or causes for infection and may pass STD's on to unaware sexual partners on the outside.
Bleach kits should also be made available to prison populations as well as homeless populations with substance abuse issues, at the point of entry into Homeless services as well

*Coordinate and assist the Health Department to add an optional screening as part of the application process to all City Housing and Employment services. The testing would be completely optional, but greater screening can have a dramatic effect on decreasing the rate of infection,

*Assist the Health Department in their outreach efforts to provide prenatal care to many lower income individuals within the city. The Mayor of Memphis can garner alot more public attention to this issue than just about any once else.The Mayor can also take a leadership role in encouraging safe sex and urging the public to get themselves tested and raising awareness about existing services.

Like I said before there are no magic wands, but so much more needs to be done.