According to the CDC, there were more than 2.5 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis reported in 2021 alone. These cases continue to grow in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the decrease in COVID-19 reported cases. This increase is directly tied to a lack of focus on prevention and an imbalance of power in relationships.
Thankfully, artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a role in taking action to stop the spread of STIs by offering a means of prevention, as well as treatment options. The role that AI can play in healthcare has no limits and continues to evolve at a rapid rate. However, humans will continue to make poor decisions and put themselves at risk. Learning how to create an interception before that mistake is made is what AI hopes to achieve.
Who’s at Risk?
STIs continue to affect vulnerable populations, such as the LGBTQ community and those who utilize online and mobile dating apps. Gay and bisexual men continue to be the majority demographic among people with HIV — even compromising over half of the reported cases in 2019. In addition, many of these men, especially Hispanic or black men, had difficulty accessing the healthcare they needed to treat HIV.
Additionally, dating apps and online platforms have made anonymous sex more readily available than ever before. If meeting with a person solely for a sexual encounter, it is not likely they have had a responsible discussion about sexual health and the presence of disease in either partner. As a means of preventing STIs, companies have created sex dolls, toys, and robots to satisfy sexual needs without the risk of infection.
Did You Google It?
Healthcare is a constantly evolving field, and thanks to technology, this field has become more accessible to patients through prevention and educational tactics. For one, technology continues to change how STIs are detected, treated, and prevented, including how we use Google. Oftentimes when symptoms of an STI occur, the first point of reference is researching what could be causing it on the internet as opposed to seeing a doctor to get tested. Google is sharing keyword search terms associated with STI symptoms with four universities to draw correlations between the rate of these search terms and confirmed cases of STIs in U.S.-based geographical areas.
This will enable the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to pinpoint outbreaks and take steps toward prevention in the affected areas. For example, if the number of keyword searches for “genital warts” or “burning sensation while urinating” spikes in a specific town or city, it sends a message to healthcare professionals alerting them to a potential outbreak. AI helps to bridge the gap between a human’s ability to correlate the two occurrences and technology’s big data collection to solve a public health issue.
There’s an App For That
Education is still one of the most valuable tools that we have against transmitting STIs. Knowing how they are spread and the effective prevention methods available enables all sexually active people to take control of their sexual health. Websites, such as Qpid.me, share sexual health information between users to alert potential partners of possible risks.
Additionally, a new AI tool, called HEALER (Hierarchical Ensembling based Agent which plans for Effective Reduction in HIV spread), uses an algorithm to spread information across social media platforms, much like a marketer would do. It gathers information about the user and targets younger people with public health ads. HEALER is specially geared towards the homeless youth populations on the streets of California.
Using technology as a tool for advancement should be considered in more realms than energy and faster automobiles. Using AI as a public health tool may be an investment that our current administration should consider including in their future budget plans. Looking towards the future, we can hope to see vast advancements in STI prevention in part thanks to AI development.
About the author:
Charlie Fletcher is a freelance writer passionate about workplace equity, and whose published works cover sociology, politics, business, education, health, and more.
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