0

Top 10 Oregon counties for gonorrhea

A gonorrhea epidemic has hit Oregon amid public health concerns that the disease is becoming immune to standard treatment.

Since 2012, cases have nearly tripled statewide, affecting just about every part of Oregon, including rural counties where infections have been traditionally low.

Officials in some counties have become so concerned that they’ve launched public awareness campaigns, with ads on dating sites, Facebook and Google. In others, specialists have gone door-to-door, trying to track down infected people and their partners to get them treated.

“We came to a point where we said we have to do something,” said Tanya Phillips, health promotion manager for Jackson County.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive/File

Jackson County is No. 10

Jackson County, with more than 200,000 residents, had the 10th highest number of cases, with 83 per 100,000 residents in 2016 or 176 infections. Like many other counties, cases have spiked since 2012 when 31 infections were diagnosed.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive/File

Lake County is No. 9

Lake County came in ninth in the rankings, with 87 cases per 100,000 residents. But the actual number of infections are small. The county of 8,000 residents had none or one case between 2007 and 2015. There was a spike in 2016, with seven cases.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive/File

Klamath County is No. 8

Klamath County ranked eighth in the gonorrhea rankings in 2016, with 90 cases per 100,000 residents. The county has had cases in the double digits since 2011, rising from 24 that year to 61 in 2016. The county is sparsely populated, with about 65,000 residents.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive/File

Malheur County is No. 7

Malheur County closely follows Linn County in the rankings, coming in seventh. It also had 92 cases per 100,000 residents in 2016, or 29 total cases in a county with a population of about 30,000. From 2008 to 2012 and in 2014, cases were in the single digits. There was a spike in 2013 -- with 17 cases -- and in 2016, with 29 cases.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

Jeff Manning/The Oregonian/OregonLive

Linn County is No. 6

In the gonorrhea rankings, Linn County came in sixth. The county, with a population of about 117,000, had 92 cases per 100,000 residents. Cases have spiked since 2013, when there were only 11 reported infections. They reached 113 in 2016.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive/File

Josephine County is No. 5

Josephine County was fifth in the gonorrhea rankings in 2016, with nearly 100 cases per 100,000 residents. The county, with a population of about 80,000, has seen a steep climb in cases since 2012 from 10 that year to 83 in 2016.

Don't Edit

The Associated Press

Marion County is No. 4

Marion County, home to the Capitol, had the fourth highest rate of gonorrhea in the state last year with 103 cases per 100,000 or nearly 350 cases. The number of infections has sharply risen in Marion County since 2013 when they hit a low of nearly 70 cases.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive/File

Umatilla County is No. 3

Umatilla County ranked third in Oregon's gonorrhea ratings in 2016 at 110 cases per 100,000 residents. With more than 75,000 residents, the county has more cases than Morrow -- 88 in 2016. That might now seem like many but in 2012, the county only had four cases.

Don't Edit

The Oregonian/OregonLive/File

Morrow County is No. 2

Morrow County had the second highest rate of gonorrhea cases in the state last year, with about 160 per 100,000. But in terms of the number of cases, it was tiny -- only 19. The rates are based on population. Morrow County is sparsely populated, with about 11,000 residents.

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

The Associated Press

Multnomah County is No. 1

Multnomah County has the highest number of gonorrhea cases in the state -- both in terms of raw numbers and cases per capita.

Infections started rising around 2012, when there were about 760 cases. They climbed to 1,980 in 2016, with a rate of nearly 250 cases per 100,000 residents.