A rising health concern in our valley is mainly affecting 20 to 25 year olds.
We're talking about sexually transmitted diseases. STD levels for that age group have doubled since last year.
UNLV's wastewater testing program is now monitoring sexually transmitted diseases. Channel 13's Abel Garcia sat down with the program leader to find out more about their efforts to prevent the problem from becoming worse.
Our valley's wastewater is revealing more alarming information.
"Chlamydia levels and gonorrhea levels of individuals in this age group of 20-25 are just going up," said Dr. Edwin Oh.
Oh heads UNLV's wastewater testing program and mentions that aside from COVID-19 testing, they've been monitoring STI levels for about a year.
"So this is somewhat concerning to us. We have been seeing a rise in these two different pathogens in gonorrhea and chlamydia at least doubled over the last 12 months," Oh said.
WATCH the full interview with Dr. Oh below:
He said that these high levels of STDs are detected in the Strip's wastewater, but another hotspot is college dormitories across southern Nevada.
"It's alarming, it's concerning," said student Seth Kordich.
As a student living on UNLV's campus, Kordich said this is news to him.
"As college students, we all want to mingle and get to know each other. If intimate relationships do come with that, it shouldn't be the #1 concern for us on a campus, having STIs," he said.
We compared our wastewater findings to Southern Nevada Health District's data. In January, chlamydia cases were 1,061, up by six from last year. Gonorrhea cases were 476, up by three.
Dr. Oh says while reported infections aren't high, the elevated wastewater levels suggest more asymptomatic infections in the valley.
"With asymptomatic infections, if you or I had chlamydia, we might not know," he said.
Oh said this data can help health leaders target resources to areas with high STD levels.
Kordich believes resources should be more accessible.
"I feel like breaking the stigma around having those responsible conversations can definitely be a catalyst to change as well," he said.
