Harris County HIV and STI cases surge faster than rest of Texas

HOUSTON — A new report from Harris County Health shows cases of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections are rising throughout the Houston area at a faster rate than any other place in Texas. The rates of new infections are even rising among diseases you may have forgotten about.

“HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia all of them,” says Legacy Health’s director of health navigation, Jill Jahns. “It’s a big issue we have here in our community. Harris County and Houston in particular have been surpassing the rates of STIs in Texas.”

Due to the lag for required reporting, the most recent data in the report covers the time period between 2016 and 2022.

“Between 2016 and 2022, the rates of syphilis in our community doubled,” Jahns says. “Which is definitely concerning.”

The report includes a map of the zip codes where the rate of syphilis is the highest. The parts of the Houston area with the highest rates are: Downtown, Montrose and the OST area, in that order.

For chlamydia, the highest rates of new cases are located in the Medical Center area, La Porte and Downtown.

“The ages we’re seeing it the highest is ages 15 through 24,” Jahns said.

The study shows gonorrhea has an infection rate that is surging in the Medical Center area, followed by Downtown and then Sunnyside.

The highest rates of new HIV cases were seen in Montrose, followed by the Second Ward and then Settegast.

Although the sexually transmitted infections are found in basically every demographic in Harris County, the study found there is one population that is testing positive for them at a faster rate than others.

“Particularly Black women,” Jahns said. “Black women who are heterosexual are frequently getting STIs at a higher rate than other groups.”

The best place to start is from a position of knowledge. Legacy Health offers free and confidential HIV and STI testing and some results are returned in minutes. 

All of Houston’s most prevalent STIs can be treated with medication, including HIV, which no longer has to deliver a death sentence. Houston’s HIV positive patients are given medication at Legacy Health to not only survive but also drugs that keep the active virus in their bodies low enough, to protect somebody else.