As Indiana cuts funding to county health departments next year, an analysis released this week found St. Joseph County had a higher rate of sexually transmitted diseases than 63% of counties nationally.
The analysis, by telehealth company Invigor Medical, looked at county-level sexually transmitted infection data for 2023 from the Centers for Disease Control. It showed St. Joseph County’s rate ranked 130th out of the nation’s 345 counties with at least 200,000 residents. That means only 37% of counties had higher rates.
County Health Officer Dr. Michelle Migliore says she couldn’t offer insight into why St. Joseph County would have a higher rate, but she says religious, cultural, racial and ethnic differences can affect condom use in an area.
“I think it’s very difficult," Migliore says. "I think it’s a complicated question and there are lots of variables.”
Migliore recalled a Kaiser Family Foundation survey finding that only 13% of people age 16 to 24 knew that one in two people will contract an STD in their lifetime.
“That is really alarming to me that 87% of our population is unaware of their risk," Migliore says.
The county’s 2,100 cases in 2023 actually marked a 19% decline from the prior year, and a 30% drop from 2021’s peak of about 3,000 cases.
