CHICAGO – The Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) on Friday released a comprehensive, 146-page report that details activities and demographic profiles of patients served at the City’s sexually transmitted infection specialty clinics over a five-year period between 2017-2021.During that time, more than 42,000 patients visited the CDPH clinics. The specialty clinics provide confidential HIV/STI testing, STI treatment, linkage to HIV care and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, and vaccination for mpox, COVID, and influenza.

More than half (23,676 or 56%) of the patients seen from 2017-2021 were Black, 17% (7,123) were Hispanic, and 15% (6,482) were white.

Between 2017-2021 CDPH’s STI Specialty Clinics administered:

• 49,659 chlamydia tests
• 49,436 gonorrhea tests
• 30,374 HIV tests

CDPH’s Syndemic Infectious Disease (SID) Bureau compiled and analyzed the data that went into the report including the proportion of positive chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV specimens, demographics, including sex assigned at birth, gender, race/ethnicity, age, MSM status, and visit type, stratified by clinic and presented as overall. The three STI Specialty Clinics currently operated by CDPH’s SID Bureau are:

• Lakeview Specialty Clinic, 2849 N. Clark St.
• Roseland Specialty Clinic, 211 E. 115th St.
• South Austin Specialty Clinic, 4909 W. Division St.

For hours of operation and contact information, visit the CDPH Specialty Clinics website, chicago.gov/SpecialtyClinic.

“This report is an important tool for CDPH, community members, funders, and elected officials to see who the STI Specialty Clinics are serving and what services they are provided,” said CDPH Commissioner Allison Arwady, M.D. “As visits to CDPH’s clinics are bound to increase from pandemic levels, these data and trends help us to better identify the current and future needs of our clients throughout the city.”

From 2017 to 2021, there were a total of 42,093 unique patient visits among all CDPH STI Specialty clinics. The highest number of patients were seen in 2017 (16,895). By 2019, the number of total patients seen had fallen from that high point to 9,183 (-46 percent). This may reflect the impact of the closure of two CDPH clinics, in Englewood and West Town. Both clinics are included in 2017 data, and the Englewood clinic is also reflected in 2018 data, up to its closure. Following that was the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. Because of COVID-19, caution should be taken when comparing 2020 and 2021 data to previous years. Preventive measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 were implemented in March 2020 and resulted in clinic closures and/or reduced hours of operation, reducing the number of STI tests conducted.

CDPH Clinics remained open during COVID, however, with appropriate health protection measures in place. While COVID impacted the volume of patients seen at the clinics in 2020 and 2021, the demographics of the previous three years held steady. For example, between 2017 to 2019, approximately 63-64 percent of patients seen at the STI Specialty Clinics were assigned male sex at birth. From 2020 to 2021, the percentage of those assigned male sex at birth was between 63-67 percent. The greatest representation of any racial or ethnic group has been among non-Hispanic Black patients, ranging between 64 percent in 2017 to 40 percent in 2020.

“Knowledge is power, and we want Chicagoans to have the power to take care of themselves and their communities by being aware of these STIs, talking about them, getting tested, and seeking appropriate treatment,” said Dr. Arwady. “This report highlights what services are available to Chicagoans through our clinics.”

CDPH started offering PrEP at the Lakeview Specialty Clinic by appointment this past February. PrEP services were expanded to Roseland Specialty Clinic in May by appointment based on provider availability. Providers will dispense a 30-day supply of generic Truvada, after which patients will be referred to permanent PrEP providers.

Other data from the report:

• In 2019, a greater percentage of FtM transgender clients were seen at the Roseland Specialty Clinic (2.95%) as compared to the Lakeview Specialty Clinic (1.13%).
• In 2020, a greater percentage of FtM transgender clients were seen at the South Austin Specialty Clinic (1.4%) as compared to the Lakeview Specialty Clinic (0.7%).
• Lakeview had the highest percentage of white male clients (26%) among the three clinics in 2021, but a higher percentage (28%) of the clinic’s male clients were Black. Also in 2021, the South Austin clinic had the greatest percentage of male clients among the three clinics who were Hispanic (28%).
• In 2021, there were 2,548 gonorrhea tests given among the three clinics (95% of which were negative).

A downloadable PDF of the report is on the CDPH website. There is also a direct link to the PDF here.