The number of communicable disease cases have noticeably gone up in south central Indiana.
Most of the increase involves sexually-transmitted diseases or infections, according to Amanda Organist, director of the Nursing Division of the Bartholomew County Health Department.
“We could be on the verge of a syphilis outbreak,” Organist said.
While investigations show the number of patients with syphilis has risen in the Columbus area, higher numbers can be found in some of the neighboring counties, Organist said.
There have also been increases in both chlamydia and gonorrhea cases, she said.
“I think it’s something we should put on our radar and be aware of,” Bartholomew County Health Officer Dr. Brian Niedbalski said. “But in general, I don’t think there’s really anything to panic about at this point.”
There appears to be at least two reasons for the hike in sexually-transmitted diseases, according to health department officials.
One is COVID-19, which kept most people focused on the pandemic while isolated, and less focused on seeking treatment for other medical problems, Niedbalski said.
“People weren’t seeking that medical care during that two to three-year window,” Niedbalski said. “Since they weren’t seeking the care, they weren’t getting the treatments they needed.”
But another reason is that more people are having unprotected sex with multiple partners, Organist said.
“And our numbers are still rising,” she said.
The nursing division of the Bartholomew County Health Dept., located at 2625 Foxpointe Drive, is distributing free condoms for those who request them. No appointment is necessary.
While unprotected sex is the predominant cause for sexually-transmitted diseases, the Indiana State Board of Health says it’s not the only one. Some sexually-transmitted infections can also be transmitted during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding and through infected blood or blood products, according to health officials.
Most people think of tuberculosis (TB) as a disease of the past, but the infectious bacterial disease is in Bartholomew County and appears to be on the rise, Organist told the county council earlier this month.
“My TB nurse currently has 35 patients that she alone is monitoring, and more are added almost daily,” she said.
While that increase might also be related to the pandemic, Niedbalski and Organist say most active TB cases are diagnosed in people not originally from this country.
But efforts to classify individual patients as a narrow group will draw wrong conclusions, Organist said.
“We have a very diverse population in Columbus, and the rise in TB cases cannot be traced to any single country or ethnicity,” Organist said.
The nursing division director also told the council that Bartholomew County isn’t completely out of a Hepatitis A outbreak that started in 2017, but the numbers continue to go down. Organist is optimistic the state health board will officially declare the local outbreak is over in the near future.
