The help that alcohol taxes bring in lowering STD cases

The ever growing taxes concerning alcohol have helped prevent STD cases from emerging like gonorrhea. This is according to the Florida Health Researchers who found out that gonorrhea infection rates have lessened by around 24% in Maryland after the authorities amplified the sales tax rate of alcoholic beverages in 2011, this is when they were giving facts about gonorrhea. Manifold researches have shown that boosting the taxes of the alcohol can help in lowering down the alcohol consumption of the people. If they will drink less of it, the risk of sexual behavior likes unprotected sex or having sex with new partners. In 2014, the rate of the infection from the gonorrhea, syphilis and even chlamydia is quite substantial nationwide and in young individuals who are actually responsible for around 2/3 of gonorrhea as well as chlamydia cases. The UF health research is among the very first to quantify the effect of alcohol taxes on the rate of the sexually transmitted diseases.

If the policy makers are seeking for ways to secure the youngsters from the harmful effects of STDs, they must consider increasing the taxes for alcoholic drinks, which have helped in lowering the inflation rate over the past years.  The STDs can actually bring pain, infertility and different kinds of cancer as well. According to facts about gonorrhea Inc, in Maryland alone, the tax went up and results in 2,400few statewide cases of gonorrhea within the 18 months after the tax increase took effect.  The tax increase in Maryland has been just around $0.3 in every $1. The tax rise from 6%, which has been the sales tax rate on alcohol since July, 2008.

The alcohol taxes and the STD cases

To characterize the results the team checked to the rise in alcohol taxes, they compared the trends in STD cases in Maryland with 3 groups of other states. Initially, the researchers even compared Maryland with the other states with the same alcohol sales method, however, it didn’t increase the alcohol taxes and don’t share the border with Maryland like California, Indiana, Wisconsin, Texas, New Mexico and other states with the trends close to Maryland. To take account for the possible contributions to STD trends, the team also made some comparison with Maryland and with Rhode Island. Gonorrhea infections rate have lessened at around 24% when compared with the control states after the increased tax went into effect.

The research team on the other hand wasn’t able to find an effect on chlamydia rates or any other differences across the age, gender, ethnicity and others. The absence of difference across the demographics, highly suggest that the tax might have effects on the individuals. At the moment, the populace level intervention for the STDs suggested by the center for disease control and prevention is just the distribution of condom. However the effects in this study that was observed are similar to the effectiveness of the condom distribution method.

 

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