The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Sexually Transmitted Infection/Human Immunodeficiency Virus Testing Among Adolescents in a Large Pediatric Primary Care Network

Abstract

Disruptions in sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to impact STI service delivery for adolescents. Within a large pediatric primary care network, we compared STI testing encounters between the pandemic period and an analogous prepandemic period. The STI test counts decreased and test positivity increased during the pandemic period.

Figure 1. Total test counts, positive and negative test counts, and test positivity rates from March 2019 - October 2020 for chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Note: Bars represent the total number tests sent for each STI each month, the shaded region of the bars represents positive results from these tests, the unshaded region represents negative results from these tests, and the lines represent test positivity rate. Test counts are shown on the left axis, test positivity rates are shown on the right axis.