DANVILLE – Registered Nurse Mary O'Brien sees teenagers come to Provena United Samaritans Medical Center's emergency room seeking treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

O'Brien may get only a few minutes at most to discuss prevention with those teens. She knows that's not enough, and that's why O'Brien likes the idea of a new pilot program at Catlin High School that will provide prevention education to students through the Vermilion County Health Department.

"What can we do? It's education," O'Brien told about 25 Vermilion County health officials, educators and community leaders who gathered Thursday night at Danville Area Community College for a forum to find ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Linda Bolton, community relations/health education program coordinator at the Vermilion County Health Department, said the pilot program is something the department is most excited about, because it has never been done before.

She said it is a good curriculum that will focus on teaching teenagers the decision-making skills necessary to avoid behaviors that put them at risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

"We are terribly excited about it," said Bolton, who thanked the Catlin school district for the cooperation and trust to implement the program in which a health department educator will come into the school once a week to teach the curriculum.

Kevin Thomas, principal of Catlin High School, said the high school is starting a new curriculum that focuses on life skills and social and emotional decision making, and this health department pilot program will fit in well.

The pilot program is one of several initiatives the health department is pursuing to reduce the county's high rate of sexually transmitted diseases, especially chlamydia and gonorrhea, and the department is using a $10,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health to fund the initiatives.

Ed Renier, assistant chief of the state health department's STD section, said that for the first time ever money has been dedicated to help 22 health departments in Illinois carry out STD prevention programs.

Renier said the only true prevention is abstinence, and everything else is only risk reduction. He said abstinence absolutely must be taught to teenagers. But, he said, it can't be the only option when educating teens about the issue, because the reality is that teens are sexually active.

"We have to be able to help them," he said.

Renier presented 2007 statistics that showed Vermilion County has a high rate of chlamydia and gonorrhea for its population. There were 490 cases of chlamydia reported last year and 300 cases of gonorrhea, and the rate was much higher in Danville than in other parts of Vermilion County. Most cases are identified and reported by the health department, hospital and physicians.

And a majority of the cases reported last year occurred in teens between 15 and 19 years old. And the second-largest group was 20 to 24 years old. About 40 percent of the chlamydia cases last year occurred in 15- to 19-year-olds.

Renier's statistics reflected the same trends statewide. And the numbers of chlamydia cases statewide have doubled since 1990, from about 25,000 in 1990 to more than 50,000 currently.

Renier and local health department officials said it's a community problem and everyone in the community should want to do something about it for several reasons.

Sexually transmitted diseases facilitate increased HIV transmission, cause other medical problems like infertility, cancer, pregnancy problems and newborn illnesses and even death, disproportionately affect teens, women and the economically disadvantaged, and some sexually transmitted diseases are incurable.

Another reason is the high health care cost to the community. According Renier's statistics, the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases costs the U.S. $16.6 billion per year.

And the cost can be felt locally, too.

O'Brien, who's the Provena USMC emergency room manager, said people seeking treatment for sexually transmitted diseases in the emergency room often don't have health insurance or are underinsured, which means the hospital absorbs that cost. O'Brien said one visit, not including lab work, costs about $500.

Stephen Laker, administrator of the health department, said the community must understand it's not just a health department issue.

"This has community significance. It's collectively all of our problems," he said. "It's an expensive problem that has an impact on our local emergency room and hospital."

The health department has identified several ways it plans to use the $10,000 grant to tackle the problem, and more ideas were offered at Thursday night's meeting.

In addition to the Catlin High program, the department plans to increase awareness community-wide and to increase health education to county schools, the Juvenile Detention Center and Danville Area Community College, and to expand its sexually transmitted disease clinic hours.

Laker said the department is looking for cooperative agreements, with the hospital, for example, to extend resources to more effectively identify and treat people.

"We identify only a fraction of the cases through our clinics," he said. "People have to recognize it's a problem."