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PORTLAND, Maine

'Press Herald' interviews Dora Anne Mills on rising STD rates in Maine

Dora Anne Mills
Dora Anne Mills

Dora Anne Mills, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, vice president of Clinical Affairs and director of the Center for Excellence in Health Innovation, was interviewed for an article that was published in the Portland Press Herald’s May 31 issue regarding a spike in sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases in Maine.

According to the article, infection rates for chlamydia and gonorrhea in the state of Maine were much higher than usual in 2015 and are on pace to equal or surpass them for 2016.

“This is extraordinarily high,” Mills said of the infection rates in Maine. She noted that while it is difficult to know for certain why rates have been climbing, she hypothesized that perhaps the increase is the result of young people, who tend to be the most sexually active age demographic, becoming more complacent about having unprotected sex. Nearly 60 percent of the state’s chlamydia cases in Maine last year and almost 55 percent of the gonorrhea cases were contracted by those aged 20-29.

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