Data Reporting Issues:

Sexually Transmitted Infection 2005 to present:

With the release of 2013 STD data, processing procedures were changed to include address-matching (geocoding) the STD data in order to more validly and reliably represent county of residence.  This process was then applied retroactively to prior years’ data back to 2005. Data before 2005 did not contain quality addresses and therefore continue to reflect the stated (non-geocoded) county of residence.  Therefore old reports using OASIS 2005-2012 STD data before October 15^th 2014 may have different numbers and rates.

2009-2012 STD Congenital Syphilis Data:

Please note an update to the number of congenital syphilis cases was received affecting years 2009-2012. The differences ranged from 2 to 5 cases. These updates were posted 3.17.16.

2014 STD Congenital Syphilis Data:

Please note 7 additional congenital syphilis cases were received and posted 12.6.16.

Congenital Syphilis Rates after 12.6.16:

With the release of the updated STD tools on 12.6.16, please note the rate of Congenital Syphilis was changed to have total births in the denominator.

2008-2015 Congenital Syphilis Rate:

Since 2008, there has been a sharp increase in Unknown race in Birth data, which had the predominant effect of lowering the number of White births. This effect has been seen nationwide and is associated with the use of the “2003 revision” of the birth certificate (introduced in GA in mid-2007). After consultation with NCHS, we implemented their imputation rule for Unknown race on 1/10/17.

While the total number of Congenital Syphilis cases remained the same, the effect of the of the imputation of Mother’s Race in Birth data, on the White STD Rate for Congenital Syphilis, was that there was a decrease in the White STD Rate due to increase in total number of White Births in the denominator.

2016 STD Data:

Please note that Grady Memorial Hospital started submitting gonorrhea and chlamydia data in 2016, therefore you will see an increase in these figures.

2019 Congenital Syphilis:

On 1/4/21 an update to the congenital syphilis count resulted in a net increase of 4 cases.

Syphilis, Unknown / Late Latency:

Please note that since 2014, Syphilis, Unknown Latency cases have no longer been counted as a separate syphilis stage, but have instead been included in OASIS with late stage cases in the Syphilis, Late Latency category. CDC and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) use the term, "Syphilis, unknown duration or late" as a single category for the combined late and unknown stages.

2016, 2018, 2019 Congenital Syphilis:

On 3/31/23, an update to the congenital syphilis count resulted in an increase of 3 cases in 2016, 10 cases in 2018 and 4 cases in 2019.