April is National Sexually Transmitted Diseases Awareness Month

During April's National STD Awareness campaign McHenry County Department of Health is partnering with McHenry County College to hold an "STD Awareness - Know Your Status" clinic at the college, 8900 Route 14 in Crystal Lake.

For $20, testing will be performed Monday April 11, with confidential results, and treatment if needed, available Monday April 18. The testing consists of a urine sample and a blood draw. Consulting and education is included with all testing.

Each year about 20 million new sexually transmitted disease infections in the U.S. are diagnosed. Almost half of them are among young people between 15 to 24 years of age, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In McHenry County, 642 cases of Chlamydia, 32 cases of gonorrhea, and five cases of syphilis were reported in 2015, along with 131 people living with HIV. Chlamydia is the most frequently reported STD and is known as "the silent infection because the majority of men and women experience no symptoms.

Of the 642 chlamydia cases reported in McHenry County, 67 percent of these cases were in the 15- to 24-year-old population.

There are effective ways to diagnose and easily treat STD infections. Testing and knowledge of infection are vital to reducing the consequences of these diseases. Chlamydia and gonorrhea, the two most commonly reported infectious diseases in the U.S., are also among the most serious and preventable threats to women's fertility.

The McHenry County Health Department offers confidential STD diagnostic testing twice weekly by appointment. Call (815) 334-4500 for more information or to schedule an appointment. To learn more about STDs, visit CDC www.cdc.gov/std.