Valentine’s Day is a great day to celebrate romance and love. It is also a great day to spread awareness of STIs and harm reduction. Safe sex is more than just condoms and birth control. Testing, education, safe injection, and disease tracking are all preventative measures used to keep communities safe.
In 2020, Oregon passed Measure 110 which decriminalized small amounts of narcotics including LSD, heroin, and methamphetamines. More recently, the Department of Health and Human Services has offered a grant that will provide up to $400,000 per award towards overdose prevention and clean needle exchanges.
HIV Alliance was founded for the purpose of providing support for people living with HIV/AIDS and to prevent new infections. HIV Alliance applied for grants through Measure 110 and the DHHS grant. Becky Noad, Prevention and Education Manager at HIV Alliance explained that they are unable to use state funding for certain prevention tools including syringes so these grants will help cover those costs. They are also hoping to use the funds to expand into rural communities that lack access to harm reduction and prevention clinics. Grant winners are expected to be announced on May 15.
According to Noad, Lane County has seen an uptick in syphilis. “ We are also seeing a few cases of congenital syphilis, which is mother to child transmission during birth.”
Lane Public Health stated that syphilis rates increased by 1000 percent between 2010 and 2016. That upward trend has continued during the pandemic.
HIV Alliance provides testing for a full range of STIs, telehealth appointments are available to determine what test is needed and in person appointments can be scheduled. More information on HIV Alliance testing can be found here.
A HIV vaccine may be available soon as clinical trials have started on Moderna’s mRna based vaccine. The first doses were administered at the end of January at George Washington University according to the company. Noad is cautiously hopeful of the vaccine, she said it could be a “game changer” if it works. Before a vaccine is widely available though, HIV intervention is available through PrEP. PrEP helps lower the risk of sexually acquired HIV and HIV acquired through drug injection.
According to Noad the pandemic has shifted people’s health priorities. “And we also know that people have kind of switched focus from their sexual health to probably other areas of their life. Isolation has definitely affected the number of people coming in for testing.” There has also been an increase in overdoses and substance abuse leading to more people coming to safe syringe exchanges.
Local resources for STI testing can be found through, Lane Public Health, Planned Parenthood, and the Lane Community College Health Clinic.
