STD rates for Benton, Franklin counties are out. They aren’t pretty

Washington released Monday the latest totals and rates of sexually transmitted disease in the state.

Benton and Franklin counties come out looking a little worse for the wear for 2016, the latest year to be calculated.

The counties have some of the highest rates of gonorrhea, and Franklin County stands out as having one of the highest rates of chlamydia — 514 per 100,000 people.

The rates grew much worse in Franklin County, especially for chlamydia. Benton County saw a much higher rate of gonorrhea at 135, but saw a healthy dive in the number of syphilis cases to just four.

The actual numbers of cases pale when compared with counties like King, Pierce, Snohomish and Clark.

For instance, Franklin County had 456 cases of chlamydia in 2016; King had 9,400. Benton had 258 cases of gonorrhea, but Pierce had 1,196.

Washington’s Department of Health says that many sexually transmitted diseases and infections are treatable, but all are preventable.

This story was originally published October 16, 2017 at 7:32 PM with the headline "STD rates for Benton, Franklin counties are out. They aren’t pretty."