by Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 09/98) - The more Baffin youth learn about AIDS, the more they can prevent other sexually transmitted diseases, according to the area's health promotion officer Markus Wilck.

Aside from abstinence, condoms are the major way to prevent most STDs, some of which are proving difficult to reduce.

There were 149 reported cases of gonorrhea in the NWT in 1997, a 20 per cent increase from the previous year.

Still, the big picture shows the incidence of gonorrhea has plummeted since 1990, when the rate were about three times what it is now.

"I think we'll have to wait another year to see if it's a (rising) trend or just a random peak," said NWT medical health officer Andre Corriveau. "But we're not gaining any more ground now."

Overall, chlamydia rates have not declined during the past decade. Infections totalled 1,047 in 1997, a 16.5 per cent increase over the previous year.

The NWT age distribution for chlamydia differs from that of gonorrhea in that chlamydia peaks in the younger 15-24 age group, while the risk of acquiring gonorrhea is spread more evenly among 20- to 39-year-olds.

While the number of reports declined in the western NWT, documented chlamydia infections rose 37 per cent in Nunavut.

The increase comes after the January 1997 introduction of ligase chain reaction diagnosis at the Baffin Regional Hospital Laboratory.

Also used by the Keewatin region, the LCR method requires only a urine sample so it is more acceptable to patients while offering greater specificity and sensitivity.

The urine tests are particularly useful because over 50 per cent of chlamydia infections show no obvious symptoms.

Before urine testing sometimes-painful swabs were used, and still are in the western NWT.

Corriveau said there have been 30 HIV/AIDS cases in the NWT since 1987. NWT law requires disclosure for those diagnosed in the territories though there may be more afflicted Northerners who were diagnosed outside the territory.