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GREENSBORO — Guilford County’s Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention Training Center wants more money from the state to prepare health care professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of STDs.

“Our work is mostly with health care providers,” said Dr. Laura Bachman of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. She is training director with the county’s STD training center.

“With the economy the way it is right now and the costs associated with travel, having an STD prevention training center right in this area helps doctors, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, everyone.”

The center is a cooperative arrangement between the state, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Bachman, who left Alabama and brought her work to North Carolina a little more than a year ago.

The center is requesting one-time funding of $11,620 from the state, which would bring its total to $53,100.

Bachman said Guilford County is a good place for health care workers to get hands-on training with diagnosing and treating STDs because of the county’s history of higher levels of STDs from chlamydia and syphilis to gonorrhea and HIV/AIDS.

There were 2,994 confirmed cases of chlamydia in Guilford County last year — up from 2,333 cases in 2008. Gonorrhea cases were up from 1,034 confirmed cases in 2008 to 1,100 last year.

Early latent syphilis infections — which can have no symptoms — grew from  16 cases to 22 last year. More advanced types, primary and secondary syphilis, jumped from 34 in 2008 to 46 last year.

The state report on these diseases notes that while the increase in syphilis cases is thought to be real and can be seen statewide, confirmed chlamydia cases are likely up because of enhanced laboratory reporting.

HIV cases in Guilford County were actually down, from 194 in 2008 to 128 last year.

AIDS cases — those progressing from HIV to the more life-threatening stage — were down from 84 in 2008 to 69 cases last year.

“I’m not sure anybody really knows why” Guilford County shows high levels of STDs, Bachman said. “But we are keeping a very sharp eye on it.”

That environment led the county health department to work with Bachman to bring the clinic to Guilford County, where it has benefitted medical providers with knowledge as well as practical experience in the clinic.

Bachman said medical providers learn skills at the center that can help detect STDs earlier — or catch some infections that may go completely undetected.

“So many sexually transmitted diseases can be completely asymptomatic, or asymptomatic for years until a much later stage,” Bachman said.

Bachman said it’s surprising how many medical professionals will ask screening questions about behavior, but not actually do a genital exam or full screening. That’s something that she said should be more common not just in STD-centered clinics but in general practices, with patients asking for checkups before they have any symptoms to make sure they’re in good health.

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com