Each of the six Alabama counties with the highest STD rates were in the Black Belt, including the highly populated Montgomery County, home of the state capital, which saw a rate of 18.7 cases per 1,000 people, the second highest in Alabama.
Jefferson County, home of Birmingham and the most populous county in Alabama, saw nearly 15 cases per 1,000, the seventh highest rate in the state.Mobile County, the second largest county in Alabama, ranked just inside the top 20 for STD rate, with 11.8 per 1,000 residents.
Madison County, home of Huntsville - Alabama’s largest city - ranked 25th out of 67 counties with an STD rate of 10.3 per 1,000.
Each of those large counties saw a higher rate than the state as a whole, which came in at 9.9 cases per 1,000.But the year-to-year difference from 2020 to 2021 likely isn’t because of a large change in actual cases, but rather a large change in testing, according to Dr.And in many cases, testing is key because many STDs won’t be caught without a test.