Free STD Testing in Wisconsin

Wisconsin STD Data

STD data & statistics in Wisconsin

Testing for HIV is Vital

Late diagnosis occurs when the infection advances to Stage 3 or AIDS within one year of initial diagnosis. And, it takes nearly 8 to 10 years for someone to develop AIDS after contracting HIV, indicating an extensive window is available to people living with HIV to get treated for the virus before it turns fatal. However, still, many remain oblivious to the significance and cruciality of getting tested for HIV.

It is important to note that early diagnosis is the key to a healthy and long life. Appropriate treatment can prevent the infection from progressing to Stage 3. During 2018, Wisconsin state reported over 85 deaths among people living with HIV, and one out of three individuals or 34% of the deceased lost their lives primarily due to HIV.

Still, given the introduction of medications and advanced treatment options, the median age at death among HIV-infected individuals in Wisconsin has substantially increased since 1982. You can also live long with HIV if only you make sure to get tested for HIV annually so that the virus could be detected at the right time and timely treatment is provided.

There’s nothing to worry about STDs testing as generally, the tests are performed quickly, and you only have to provide a swab in the mouth or urine sample. The tests are non-invasive and don’t require any needles. Hence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is necessary for every sexually active person, whether male or female, heterosexual or bisexual and members of the LGBT community to get themselves screened for common STDs annually. There’s an extensive network of STD testing clinics in Wisconsin, including private and public facilities, where you can easily get tested.

Government Initiatives

The Wisconsin STD Program is the state’s primary initiative for managing statewide public health response to prevent and control sexually transmitted diseases. The program also administers the operations of public STD clinics in the state.

In Wisconsin, STDs testing clinics are monitored for offering expedited partner therapy, free or low-cost testing and treatment options, and allow an individual’s sex partner to be tested together and get notified about their health status at the same time. Furthermore, the state’s program offers free condoms as well as some forms of birth control. The state also collaborates with Partner Services to extensively aid people in dealing with STDs, offer them guidance, and even notify the infected individual’s sex partner to get tested and check their sexual health status.

The Wisconsin STD Control Section is responsible for coordinating with Partner Services, most of which are provided by local health departments. As per the local law, certain STDs must be reported to the local health authorities or to the Division of Public Health/DPH. Moreover, Wisconsin’s law also requires local health departments and DPH to follow up on reportable STDs. Anyone who tests positive for STDs that the state has declared as reportable will receive free-of-cost partner services.

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) is funded by the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health under a cooperative agreement. The DPI uses the funds to help and support schools and districts in delivering exemplary sexual health education with sufficient emphasis on HIV and other STD prevention strategies. Moreover, the department strives to increase adolescent access to key sexual health services as well as ensures students and staff live in safe and supportive environments.

HIV Initiatives

Wisconsin HIV Program ensures confidential, and name-associated reporting of confirmed cases of HIV to the state epidemiologist and the reports are then submitted to the Wisconsin HIV Program. Records are obtained from private physicians, clinics, hospitals, ambulatory care facilities, and sexually transmitted disease clinics.

In addition to this, data is acquired from the Wisconsin correctional system and other facilities like blood and plasma centers, family planning clinics, perinatal clinics, military entrance processing stations, tribal health clinics, and laboratories performing HIV testing. Furthermore, the program collaborates with other state-level initiatives such as AIDS/HIV Drug Assistance Program and AIDS/HIV Health Insurance Premium Subsidy Program to obtain HIV-related records, particularly infection rate across the state and morbidity rate.

Wisconsin state makes laboratory-based reporting necessary by law and that laboratories perform confidential, name-associated HIV confirmatory testing. The report is submitted to the HIV Program with the name of the physician who prescribed the test, the name of the subject, and all the positive samples. The information is used to identify people who have been diagnosed with HIV recently and the ongoing diagnostic trends.

In Wisconsin, HIV testing occurs in numerous settings, such as publicly funded test sites, private medical clinics, and especially designated CTR (counseling, testing, and referral) sites. CTR Sites are funded by the Division of Public Health and include local health departments and community-based organizations.

The HIV Care Continuum is used at local, state, and regional levels to monitor and assess engagement in care and the health status of people living with HIV. A portion of this continuum measures timely access to care.

The Center for AIDS Intervention Research (CAIR) is a federally funded center focused on preventing HIV/AIDS through behavioral interventions. It is the only research center located between two American coasts. Over the past two decades, the CAIR team managed to bring in over $150 million in funding and has published more than a thousand research papers. The center operates twelve full-time faculties and is engaged in approx. Twenty projects at a time related to a variety of subjects, from adolescents to elderly citizens.

CAIR is also a participant in HIV programs/initiatives of different countries, including Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, and El Salvador. CAIR has developed and tested HIV infection’s preventive interventions to augment treatment rates for infected individuals and transfers its latest prevention-related research to patient care front liners and AIDS service providers.

STD Statistics in Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s rate of STDs is fairly low compared to the overall national rates. For instance, the state’s chlamydia cases relative to its population size puts Wisconsin in the lower half of the country regarding chlamydia prevalence. Reportedly, the state’s chlamydia cases rate is 8% lower than the overall national rate. Though Wisconsin ranks 30th among all the 50 states after population-adjusted rates of chlamydia, it has steadily observed a spike in chlamydia since 2014. Between 2007 and 2017, the state’s chlamydia rates have increased by over 30%. In 2007, the total number of chlamydia cases in Wisconsin was 354/100,000 people. In 2008, the rate jumped slightly to 368. By 2015, it had crossed 425. In 2016, the state reported 470 cases, and in 2017 it reached 485/100,000 people.

Wisconsin ranked 33rd in the country for its population-adjusted gonorrhea rate in 2018-2019, with a rate that’s around 20% lower than the overall national gonorrhea rates. However, gonorrhea has become slightly more prevalent in the state as the number of cases has risen every year since 2014. In 2014, the state reported 72 cases per 100,000 people. This number increased to 93 in 2015. In 2016, it crossed 115, and in 2017 the total number of gonorrhea cases was 135/100,000 population.

Regarding syphilis, the state has the 5th-lowest population-adjusted infection rate in the country. In fact, its rate is about a third of the overall U.S. level. Despite that, the rate of primary/secondary syphilis remained relatively low before 2014.

Since 2016, the rates have almost doubled. In 2012, the state reported 1.6 cases/100,000 people, the following year, the state had 1.8 primary/secondary syphilis cases, in 2014 and 2015, the state reported 1.5 cases, but in 2016, this number suddenly increased to 2.4 cases/100,000 people and in 2017, around 3 cases were reported in the state. Still, in all midwestern states, Wisconsin reported the second-lowest rate of primary/secondary syphilis.

In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee metro area accounts for the largest chunk of reportable STDs cases and ranks higher among all U.S. cities affected with different STDs. Regarding chlamydia, Milwaukee accounted for one-third of all cases in 2017. The area had the 4th highest chlamydia rate of any central metro area in the country with 1,148 cases/100,000 people, followed by the Menominee area with 1.006 cases.

Over sixty percent of Wisconsin’s gonorrhea cases were diagnosed among people living in the Milwaukee area. In contrast, the greater Milwaukee area reported the 2nd highest gonorrhea rate in all major US metro areas. Furthermore, over half of all syphilis cases in the state were diagnosed among Milwaukee residents.

HIV Rates in Wisconsin

Since 1979, nearly 10,473 Wisconsin residents have been diagnosed with HIV, but the diagnosis rate increased rapidly during the late 1980s and reached its peak in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, infection rates in Wisconsin state declined considerably, but since 2010, the diagnosis rates have been fluctuating from low to high, with 213 cases reported in 2018 compared to 257 cases in 2017.

So, on average, Wisconsin has reported 232 new HIV cases per year since 2010. About half (48%) of people living with HIV in Wisconsin reside in Milwaukee County. The second most impacted region is Dane County, with 12% of all reported HIV cases, and 4% of the cases were reported in Racine, Kenosha, and Brown counties during 2017-2018.

In 1990, over 12 new HIV cases were reported per 100,000 residents in Wisconsin, while by 2019, the new diagnosis rate declined substantially to 3.7/100,000 people. During 2010-2019 the state’s annual diagnosis rate also fluctuated wildly, reaching a peak in 2017 with 4.5 cases/100,000 individuals. On average, 4.0 new HIV diagnoses were reported per 100,000 people per year since 2010.

Around two out of three reported HIV cases, or 62% of them reportedly have a transmission category of male-male sexual contact. In contrast, in 21% of the cases, the transmission category was male-female sexual contact/heterosexual contact. Over 16% of all HIV-positive patients contracted the virus via injection drug use or both injection and male-male sexual contact. Hence, male-male sexual contact could be dubbed the most common HIV risk factor in Wisconsin. During 2019, around 34 individuals received acute HIV diagnoses, and among these, seven were reported to be experiencing acute symptoms.

Age, Gender, and Ethnic Disparities

In Wisconsin, there has been a 44% increase in syphilis cases, 37% increment in gonorrheal infection rates, and a 12% increase in chlamydia cases over the past five years, stated executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors, David Harvey.

As per the 2017 STD surveillance data shared by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, females accounted for the greatest number of cases in Wisconsin during 2017 compared to males with 63% and 37% of all reported STD cases, respectively. Males, conversely, accounted for the highest number of syphilis cases, with more than 80% of all cases in 2017, while females reported 68% of all chlamydia cases in Wisconsin. The scenario wasn’t as varied regarding gonorrheal infection rate as females accounted for 48% of all cases while males reported 52% of all reported gonorrhea cases.

The worst affected age group for all STDs in Wisconsin during 2017 was the 20-24-year-olds with 36% of all reported cases across the state (3,250 cases), followed by 15-19 age group with 26% of all cases (2,299), and the 25-29 age group reported 19% of all cases (1,735).

As far as ethnic minorities are concerned, whites reported the highest STD morbidity rate with 39.6% and 14,055 cases, African-Americans’ morbidity rate was 32.2% with 11,417, and Asian/Pacific Islanders reported 1.4% of all STD-related morbidity rates with 486 cases.

In total, the state reported 35,470 STDs cases in 2017. African-Americans were the most at-risk population group regarding reportable STDs with 3,143 cases, followed by American Indians with 728 cases, and Asian Pacific Islanders were the third most impacted group with over 390 cases in 2017.

HIV-Specific Data

In Wisconsin, the majority of reported HIV cases were diagnosed in males (79%), and most of the cases were diagnosed in people above age 30 (89%), and around 51% of these people were aged above 50. 3 out of 7 positive diagnoses were reported in the white population (43%), followed by African-Americans with 38% of all diagnoses, and the third most impacted population group was Hispanics with 14% cases.

It is worth noting that between 2010 and 2019, the HIV diagnosis rate decreased from over 13 cases to 11 cases/100,000 young men. A similar trend was noted among older men and young females. However, the fact cannot be ignored that new HIV diagnosis disproportionately impacts people of color in Wisconsin. In 1989, the percentage of HIV diagnoses in people of color was 20%, which increased to 68% in 2019.

In 2019, 167 males, 43 females, and four transgender people of color were diagnosed with HIV. Around 1 out of 3 of these diagnoses were reported among males under 30, while the median age at diagnosis in Wisconsin was 32. But, in 2019, the new diagnoses rate among men was a lower average age than women as females above 39 were the most impacted age group compared to 30-year-old males.

The diagnosis rate was higher among blacks and Hispanic people in 2019 compared to other ethnicities. However, the new HIV diagnoses number per 100,000 people declined for Hispanic and black females between 2010-2019 while it remained stable for white females. On the other hand, the new HIV diagnoses rate declined for white males and remained stable for black and Hispanic males. Moreover, during 2010-2019, fifteen American Indian people were diagnosed with HIV in the state; three out of four were males, and 47% were below 30 years of age at the time of diagnosis. Nine of these diagnoses reported transmission category as male-to-male sexual contact, and two were attributed to injection drug use, while 4 had an unknown transmission category.