STI Plan: Vision and Goals

The STI National Strategic Plan aims to reverse the recent dramatic rise in STIs in the United States and reduce STI health disparities. Ultimately, it aims to improve the health of people in our nation and reduce health care costs related to STIs.  The STI Plan sets a vision as well as goals, objectives, and strategies to respond to this STI epidemic. The goals, objectives and strategies provide a roadmap for a broad range of stakeholders—including public health, health care, government, community-based organizations, educational institutions, researchers, private industry, and academia—to develop, enhance and expand STI prevention and care programs at the local, state, tribal and national levels over the next five years. 

The following is a snapshot of the vision, goals and focus areas of the STI Plan.

 Goal 1: Prevent New Sexually Transmitted Infections

Focus Areas include:   

• Primary prevention – preventing STIs before they occur
• Increase awareness of STIs and sexual health
  • Non-stigmatizing, comprehensive approach to sexual health education and sexual well-being
• Increase completion rates of routinely recommended HPV vaccination
• Provide resources, incentives, training, and technical assistance to expand health workforce and systems capacity
• Increase diversity of the workforce that delivers STI prevention services
• Integrate STI prevention with HIV, viral hepatitis, and substance use prevention services across workforces and delivery systems

 Goal 2: Improve the health of people by reducing adverse outcomes of STIs.

Focus Areas include:

• Expand high-quality affordable STI secondary prevention, including screening, care, and treatment
  • Support expanded staffing and role of Disease Intervention Specialists/contact tracers in programs
  • Increase STI screening and testing for priority populations, including extragenital STI testing among MSM
• Expand workforce STI knowledge and experience through education and training, maintenance of certification, and continuing education programs
• Optimize, expand use of, and improve the effectiveness of expedited partner therapy, STI partner services, and linkage to care in programs and settings that provide STI testing and treatment

 Goal 3: Accelerate progress in STI research, technology, and innovation.

Focus Areas include:

• Increase research and investments to develop STI vaccines and bring them to market
• Support development and uptake of:
  • Multipurpose Prevention Technologies (MPTs) that combine STI prevention and contraception
  • Developmental therapeutic agents
  • STI diagnostic technologies
    • Point of care and self-collected
    • Rapid antibiotic susceptibility determination
  • Antimicrobial prophylaxis regimens
  • Other interventions for the identification and treatment of STIs, including new and emerging disease threats

 Goal 4: Reduce STI-related health disparities and health inequities.

Focus Areas include:

• Reduce stigma and discrimination associated with STIs
• Train providers, including primary care, specialty, and nontraditional providers, to deliver high-quality, culturally and linguistically appropriate, nondiscriminatory, nonjudgmental, compassionate, and comprehensive sexual health services
• Address social determinants of health and co-occurring conditions
  • Expand policies and approaches that promote STI prevention and care in programs involving housing, education, transportation, the justice system, and other systems that impact social determinants of health.

 Goal 5: Achieve integrated, coordinated efforts that address the STI epidemic.

Focus Areas include:

• Establish and scale up integration of STI-related efforts, policies, and programs with all parts of the syndemic of STIs, HIV, viral hepatitis and substance use disorders
  • This includes stigma, discrimination and social determinants of health
• Improve data related to STIs and social determinants of health
  • Includes STI surveillance infrastructure and real-time data sharing
  • Align indicators across programs
• Improve mechanisms to evaluate progress toward STI Plan goals
  • Integrated implementation plans – STIs, HIV, viral hepatitis, other communicable infections, substance use disorders
  • Regularly communicate progress and course-correct when insufficient progress

Learn more about the STI Plan or download the plan to read it - PDF.