CDC report: Missouri’s STD rates dropping, but keep your pants on …

According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of of reported sexually-transmitted diseases in Missouri dropped between 2007 and 2008. Keep the celebration to a minimum, though — there’s still plenty in the data to cause concern.

In Kansas City, there were 4,735 reported cases of chlamydia in 2008, compared with 4,279 in 2007 — a 10.7 percent increase. According to Jeff Hershberger, the spokesman for the Kansas City Health Department, the increase in chlamydia “could be in part due to the continued expansion of screening, use of more sensitive tests, and more complete national reporting systems.”

Cases of gonorrhea in Kansas City decreased 8.8 percent, from 2,264 in 2007 to 2,064 in 2008.

Primary and secondary syphilis cases went down 39.2 percent between 2007 (102 cases) and 2008 (62 cases).

“This is the first year we’ve seen a decrease in syphilis since 2000,” Hershberger says.

“We’ve been doing a lot of campaigning in the public to really focus on

that — the big one was, ‘Did you take PHIL home last night?‘”