8th Army STD screening funds running out

[unhappycamper]

8th Army STD screening funds running out
By Jon Rabiroff, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, December 10, 2009

CAMP RED CLOUD, South Korea — A program that officials said put a dent in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among U.S. soldiers in South Korea is running out of money.

Two years ago, 8th Army began testing incoming personnel for chlamydia and gonorrhea.

That led to a jaw-dropping increase in the number of STDs found among South Korea-based U.S. soldiers: a roughly 40 percent jump since 2007. Army officials said the numbers were not evidence of a worsening problem, but rather of a successful screening program that has identified carriers, particularly of chlamydia, who might not otherwise have known they were candidates to infect others.

“Bottom line ... we do not believe there is an increase in STDs among our soldiers,” 8th Army spokesman Lt. Col. Jeff Buczkowski said. “If you test more, you find more. The increase is not due to more cases, but to better screening.”

However, funding for that testing program ends this month, and starting next year only those with symptoms, or women who meet certain criteria, will be screened for STDs.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66558