California ranks 2nd among the 50 states in the number of new HIV diagnoses in 2015.

Public health officials throughout Southern California are grappling with alarming increases in syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia that are part of a national epidemic.

In 2015, total combined cases of the three sexually transmitted diseases reached an all-time high, according to a late 2016 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report noted that gonorrhea rates were at historic lows and syphilis was close to elimination earlier in the 2000s but now the STDs pose “a substantial health challenge.”

This is combined with rising levels of HIV throughout San Jose. The city is seeing younger people getting infected, a large group of people aren’t in treatment, and programs that had been helping patients for decades have had their budgets cut.

“It’s a huge public health issue we’re still treating lots of people for a disease that’s ultimately preventable. This is absolutely a public health concern,” says Roger Mortimer with Community Regional Medical Center’s Specialty Health Clinic. “In some ways we’re a victim of our success. It’s bad that there’s a constant influx of new patients and that’s a failure of public health, of testing, but it’s a success that we have people that are living right now.”

A key point to combatting the spread of HIV is getting people into care before HIV progresses into AIDS. Today HIV is no longer a death sentence — people can take a pill on a daily basis to reduce the amount of the virus in their body to minimal levels. This makes the patient highly unlikely to pass the virus to someone else.

But the only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. And that’s where public health officials still see a large gap in progress, because many people — especially young people — are not getting tested. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 10% of high school students had been tested for HIV in 2015, and just 21% of young bisexual and gay men — the population most at risk of infection — were screened for the disease.

Private Testing Center strives to combat the rising levels of STDs and HIV in our nation by offering affordable, convenient and confidential testing at over 2,000 testing facilities across the country. This includes over 60 locations in and around San Jose. The average lab visit takes just 15 minutes, and same-day appointments are available.

You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to find the answers about your sexual health. Left untreated and undiagnosed, STDs and HIV can quickly cause permanent damage and health problems to your body. Don’t take that chance. Schedule a test with PTC Today.