Ad campaign targets diseases "down there."
County health officials announced a campaign ad blitz today, targeting young gay and bisexual men, and women about sexually transmitted diseases. Cases of syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorreah continue to increase among those groups.
From the Los Angeles Department of Public Health:
Last year, there were a total of 30,000 cases of chlamydia and 5,000 gonorrhea cases among women in Los Angeles County. African American and Latinas under the age of 25 represented 55 percent of those cases. If left untreated, these diseases can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, chronic pain, internal scarring and infertilityIn 2006, there were 1,000 cases of syphilis among Los Angeles County gay and bisexual men -- a 365 percent increase from 2001. Sixty percent of those cases were among men with HIV.