Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) Definitions

Mapping Units
Visible Layers
Base Layers
Definitions
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Presentation Information

All numbers and rates pertain to the place of residence (not occurrence).

If an Age group, Race, Sex, Ethnicity or Education Level are chosen, all rates/percentages include only the choices in both the numerator and denominator.

Maps are used to emphasize the spatial distribution of one or more geographic attributes or variables. This site generates choropleth maps as thematic maps in which the geographies are shaded different colors to represent different magnitudes of a variable.
The map projection is Lambert Conformal Conic.

Not Reportable: At the County level or higher rates (and percents) based on 1-4 events are not reported due to statistical reliability reasons. At sub-county level (Census Tract or County Commission District), rates and percents based on 0-4 are not reported. This assures confidentiality.
Trendable Maps: Trendable maps are a series of choropleth maps showing change in spatial distribution of data in a selected area over selected period of time. Trendable maps share the same data class breaks which allows easy comparions between each map in the series.

Mapping Units:

County to create a map of a selected geography: counties, Public Health District(s) or Perinatal Region(s); or
Public Health District to create a map of the state by the 18 Public Health Districts; or
Perinatal Region to create a map of the state by the 6 Perinatal Regions.

Visible Layers:

Cities/Towns: A mix of both incorporated places (legal entities) and census designated places or CDPs (statistical entities). An incorporated place is established to provide governmental functions for a concentration of people. Places always nest within a state, but may extend across county and county subdivision boundaries. An incorporated place usually is a city, town, village, or borough, but can have other legal descriptions. CDPs are delineated to provide data for settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name, but are not legally incorporated under the laws of the state in which they are located. Click on city/town name to highlight the boundary. Reference Source: U.S. Census, 2020.
GA House Districts: Electoral districts from which State Representatives are elected. The Georgia Constitution requires not less than 180 Representatives apportioned by population from representative districts. Layer Source: https://www.legis.ga.gov/, Adopted 2023 – Effective for 2024 Elections.
GA Senate Districts: Electoral districts from which State Senators are elected. The Georgia Constitution limits the number to not more than 56 single member districts. Senate districts are apportioned based on population. Layer Source: https://www.legis.ga.gov/, Adopted 2023 – Effective for 2024 Elections.
Hospitals: Hospitals are inpatient medical facilities in Georgia. Click on the symbol to get the name. Updated 6.23.2025.
Interstates: Interstates are the freeways that are part of the Interstate Highway System in Georgia. The Interstate Highway System connects major cities within the United States. Click on the line to get the Interstate number. Layer Source: Esri, March 1, 2012.
Major Roads: Major roads are a combination of both federal and state highways connecting cities and towns. Click on the line to get the route number. Layer Source: Esri, March 1, 2012.
Perinatal Regions: The Perinatal Regions were established by the Department of Public Health in cooperation with the six teaching hospitals located in Atlanta, Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Savannah. The Regions reflect the hospital referral patterns for high risk pregnant women and newborns Each of the six hospitals has a Regional Perinatal Center which has contracts with the state and receives funding to care for high risk pregnant women and infants as well as to train staff from other hospitals in perinatal care especially for high risk patients. Reference Source: Georgia Department of Public Health, March 2005.
ZIP Code: Established by the U.S. Postal Service for distribution of mail. Zip codes do not generally respect political boundaries or census areas such as tracts. Zip codes usually do not have clearly identifiable boundaries, often serve a continually changing area, are changed periodically to meet postal requirements, and do not cover all land area in the U.S. Layer Source: Esri, June 1, 2020.

Base Layers:

Base layers are background information to provide contextual references for local-level maps. They are especially suited for tract-level maps and give real-world reference to maps you create in OASIS. There are six toggle-able (on/off) base layers:
Aerial Photograph: World Imagery provides one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery (ESRI).
Simple Street: Light Gray Canvas provides a neutral background with minimal colors, labels, and features allowing the choropleth maps to come to the foreground (ESRI).
Socioeconomic (SES) Vulnerability: Socioeconomic (SES) Vulnerability refers to the socioeconomic status domain/subset of the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) 2020. Socioeconomic vulnerability ranks census tracts within Georgia on 5 factors: below 150% poverty, unemployed, housing cost burden, no high school diploma, and no health insurance. Percentile ranking values range from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating greater vulnerability/lower socioeconomic status. Quintiles of the percentile rankings were used to create class breaks (Very Low, Low, Average, High and Very High SES Vulnerability). Keep in mind that “Very Low” SES Vulnerability equates to a High SES status. For more information see https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/placeandhealth/svi/index.html. For data dictionary click here.
Street and Place Names: National Geographic World Map, developed by National Geographic and Esri, is designed to be used as a general reference map for informational and educational purposes (ESRI).
Street Map: World Street Map includes highways, major roads, minor roads, one-way arrow indicators, railways, water features, cities, parks, landmarks, building footprints, and administrative boundaries, overlaid on shaded relief for added context (ESRI).
Street Topographical: World Topo Map includes administrative boundaries, cities, water features, physiographic features, parks, landmarks, highways, roads, railways, and airports overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery for added context (ESRI).

Data Classification Methods:

Quantiles: splits the data into equal-sized groups, for example dividing all 159 counties into 5 groups from smallest number to largest. Roughly 32 counties will be in each group.

Natural Breaks (Jenks): looks for clusters in the data and groups similar values together, so each group has numbers that are more alike. For example, if mapping counts by county, Fulton may stand out by itself and be the only county in its group.

Which to use? That depends on what questions you’re trying to answer, and the distribution of the underlying data. Quantiles usually produces more compelling maps when using the Trendable Maps feature on OASIS. Jenks is useful to highlight natural patterns in the data and outliers. In sum:

Quantiles: Showing Overall Spatial Patterns Across Areas

Good for showing distribution evenness or making comparisons between groups.
Pros: Simple, balanced categories.
Cons: Can place very different values in the same class if data are skewed.

Natural Breaks (Jenks): Highlighting Areas With Distinctly High or Low Values

Best when data has uneven distribution or natural groupings.
Pros: Highlights natural patterns in the data.
Cons: Uneven class sizes; harder to interpret or compare across maps.

Definitions:

Age

Ages are presented by Detailed Age Groupss and Lifestages which are created by the Department of Public Health, OHIP. Also, note that selecting "all ages" will supercede any start and end age selection. Uncheck "all ages" to make an age-specific selection.

Age-Adjusted Rates

A weighted average of the age-specific rates, where the weights are the proportions of persons in the corresponding age groups of a standard population. The calculation of an Age-Adjusted Rate uses the year 2000 U.S. standard million. Benefit: Controls for differences in age structure so that observed differences in rates across areas such as counties are not due solely to differences in the proportion of people in different age groups in different areas. Rates are per 100,000 population.

Data Classes

Also referred to as "class breaks" or groupings of data.

Ethnicity

Hispanic or Latino includes persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. Non-Hispanic + Hispanic may not equal the total number of events due to persons of unknown ethnicity.

Race

Per the Federal Office of Management and Budget, Directive 15 (1997),

White is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa;
Black or African-American is a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa;
Asian is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand and Vietnam;
American Indian/Alaska Native is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment;
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander is a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands;
Multiracial is a person declaring 2 or more of these races.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)

Number of STDs represents new cases (incidence). Persons can be counted more than once.

STD Rate

STD Rate Formula = [Number of STDs / Population] * 100,000. Rates that use Census Population Estimates in the denominator are unable to be calculated when the selected population is Unknown.

For Congenital Syphilis rate, number of births is used as a denominator instead of population.

STD Data Suppression Rules

Not Reportable indicates that:

- the denominator contains less than 100 population therefore the number or rate (age-specific or age-adjusted) is suppressed at any geography level (State, PHD or County) or,

- the numerator is less than 5 therefore the number is suppressed at PHD and County levels.

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Layman Term	ICD10 (ICD9) codes	International Classification of Diseases Term	Description
Sexually Transmitted Diseases	A50-A57,A70, A74 (077.9, 078,88, 079, 090 - 099.9)	Infectious and Parasitic Diseases	Infectious and parasitic diseases are generally recognized as communicable or transmissible. For complete case definitions of reportable STDs, please see https://www.cdc.gov/std/statistics/2019/case-definitions.htm.
Chancroid	A57 (099.0)	Chancroid	Chancroid is caused by infection with the bacterium Haemophilus ducreyi. This organism causes one or more ulcers and are associated with inguinal lymphadenitis.
Chlamydia	A56, A70, A74 (077.9, 078,88, 079, 099.41, 099.5)	Chlamydiae	Chlamydia is a common sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the bacterium, Chlamydia trachomatis, which can damage a woman's reproductive organs. Even though symptoms of chlamydia are usually mild or absent, serious complications that cause irreversible damage, including infertility, can occur "silently" before a woman ever recognizes a problem. Chlamydia also can cause discharge from the penis of an infected man.
Gonorrhea	A54 (098)	Gonoccoccal	Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Gonorrhea is caused by Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a bacterium that can grow and multiply easily in the warm, moist areas of the reproductive tract, including the cervix (opening to the womb), uterus (womb), and fallopian tubes (egg canals) in women, and in the urethra (urine canal) in women and men. The bacterium can also grow in the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus.
Syphilis	A50 - A53 (090 - 097)	Syphilis	Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the bacterium Treponema Pallidum. It has often been called "the great imitator" because so many of the signs and symptoms are indistinguishable from those of other diseases. For complete case definitions for all syphilis stages, please see https://www.cdc.gov/std/statistics/2019/case-definitions.htm. 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.
LGV	A55 (099.1)	Lymphogranuloma Venereum	Lymphogranuloma Venereum (LGV) is a systemic, sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by a type of Chlamydia Trachomatis (serovars L1, L2, or L3) that rarely occurs in the United States and other industrialized countries. However, recent outbreaks of LGV proctitis have been reported among men who have sex with men (MSM).

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V1.17 (7/29/2025)