City responds to rise in STDs with grant 

Syphilis rates have increased 13-fold in Springfield since 2015, according to Springfield-Greene County Health Department officials. 

“With 280 cases in the last year, that means every month we were doing the same number of cases we had in all 2015, so it’s certainly an alarming trend,” Health Department Assistant Director Jon Mooney told City Council at its meeting Monday. 

Mooney said the Health Department plans a focused effort to fight syphilis over the next two or three years with support from a $162,500 grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flowing through the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. 

Council voted 8-0 (one member, Craig Hosmer, was absent) to accept the grant during last night’s meeting. 

Mooney said the money would be used to hire two people with the technical expertise to investigate syphilis and with the case management skills to help people get treatment. 

September data from the CDC show syphilis increased nationally by 26% from 2020 to 2021. Congenital syphilis, which infects fetuses in utero, rose 235% from 2016 to 2020. 

“It can be an extremely serious disease at that point,” Mooney said. “It often can lead to miscarriage or, if the baby survives to birth, can lead to lifelong impacts, so it’s obviously something we are not OK with as a community.” 

The grant also will be used to fight gonorrhea, which also is on the rise locally. 

“The focus of this grant … is to really address syphilis to begin with and then more broadly other sexually transmitted infections in the coming years,” Mooney said. 

He said the grant program also offers extensions in the future to continue the work. 

“It’s not just a one-time deal,” he said. 

In April, the CDC published a 2020 STD Surveillance Report which found gonorrhea rose 10% from 2019 to 2020. Chlamydia, the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S., declined during that time by 13%, contributing to an overall decrease in total STDs in 2020, from 2.5 million cases in 2019 to 2.4 million in 2020.  

Declines in reported STD cases may have been the result of a drop in in-person health care services as routine doctor’s visits decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the CDC report. 

According to the grant agreement, the funding will cover STD surveillance, response to outbreaks, screenings, public information dissemination and the development of STD-related policy. It also will support HIV prevention goals.