(11/15/23) Chase Brexton Health Care will launch a new clinic focused on the diagnosis and treatment of sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) in Baltimore City thanks to a grant award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Chase Brexton was awarded $500,000 in first-year funding to start the clinic, with a total award of $2.5 million expected over the five-year project period. Funding was awarded under the CDC’s Enhancing STI and Sexual Health Clinic Infrastructure (ESSHCI) project, part of the ongoing federal Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative.
“Diagnosing and treating STIs has been at the heart of Chase Brexton’s mission from our inception in 1978 as a gay men’s health clinic,” said Dr. Sebastian Ruhs, Chief Medical Officer for Chase Brexton Health Care. “These services continue to be urgently needed here in Baltimore City and around the country. We’re proud to be among the recipients of this critical CDC funding, which will allow us to expand the care we provide here in the communities we serve.”
Chase Brexton’s STI clinic will include a full-time program manager and two nurse coordinators, who will provide testing, treatment, prevention, education, and linkage to other Chase Brexton services. The clinic will also network with other community resources around Baltimore. While Chase Brexton has provided STI testing and treatment for decades, this new clinic will be solely dedicated to those services and greatly expand patient access to STI care.
“The existing infrastructure of sexual health clinics is insufficient to address the STI epidemic in the United States,” said Leandro Mena, MD, MPH, FIDSA, director of the Division of STD Prevention at the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. “CDC recognizes that if additional efforts are not taken to expand the breadth of sexual health services in the communities most impacted by STIs, the nation will continue to see an upward trajectory in these infections. To help address this challenge, ESSHCI will increase participating clinics’ capacity to provide quality comprehensive sexual health services, leading to increased access to quality, stigma-free sexual health services in underserved communities.”
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