Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic Reopens As STD Rates Soar

CHELSEA, NY —The Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic reopened this month after $26.3 million overhaul that closed the popular center for three years.

The health center, located at 303 Ninth Ave., closed its doors in March 2015 in dire need of repairs. City officials reopened the clinic on March 15, after much of the building, which was first constructed in the 1930s, had been gutted and newly renovated.

The clinic is reopening as the city continues to work toward its goal to end the spread of HIV by 2020, and as reports of other sexually transmitted infections, like chlamydia and gonorrhea, continue to increase.

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson joined other city officials and community activists at a ribbon cutting on March 15 to officially open the new health center, a project Johnson had championed since before he was elected speaker.

Johnson, the only openly HIV-positive elected official in the state, thanked the advocates and activists for "causing a commotion" when the city first closed the clinic for repairs three years ago.

Health and LGBT activists immediately protested the city's plan, demanding more resources for people in the neighborhood while the center was in the middle of extensive repairs. The activism eventually resulted in a mobile health clinic in Chelsea that could provide sexual health treatment while the clinic was being renovated.

"For affected communities, the abrupt 2015 closing of the Chelsea Health Clinic...was enormously bad news," activist Jeremiah Johnson, of the Treatment Action Group, said at the clinic's reopening. But Johnson applauded the new clinic, and the intermediary plan that he and other advocates fought for, as a "testament to the power of outspoken community advocacy."

"We’ll always be as loud and obnoxious as we need to be to make sure we’re holding everyone accountable," Johnson promised at the ribbon-cutting, before criticizing health officials for not including more off-hours options for patients who couldn't seek treatment during business hours.

City officials said they expected the Chelsea Sexual Health Clinic to quickly return to its status as the city's most popular destination for sexual healthcare.

"This clinic has been known as a magnet clinic from across the city, because this is considered a safe neighborhood for LGBT people, a welcoming neighborhood," Corey Johnson, the Council Speaker, said. "Folks would actually come from all over the city just to come to this clinic to get care, and this clinic will continue to be that type of magnet now that it is newly renovated and open and beautiful."

Dr. Mary Bassett, the city's health commissioner, said patients had already begun visiting the clinic even before it was officially opened to the public. At least 20 patients were started on pre-exposure prophylaxis, an HIV prevention medication, in the first two weeks of March.

"We know that this clinic is going to be swamped," Bassett said.

The clinic provides a range of sexual health services, including HIV prevention, HIV treatment initiation, contraception, and testing for other sexually transmitted infections.

The health department is spreading the word about the newly opened clinic through an advertising campaign that will spread across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Grindr, Scruff, Jack'd and Gay Ad Network partner sites.

New cases of HIV in New York City are at a historic low. In 2016, 2,279 people were newly diagnosed with HIV, the lowest number since the city began tracking the disease in 2001. While new HIV diagnoses indicate a decline, reports of other sexually sexually transmitted infections are the on rise.

Citywide, the rate of STDs has risen notably. Reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis have all reached their highest levels in 30 years, according to a 2017 analysis by the Independent Budget Office. Chelsea had more reported cases of men who have contracted chlamydia and gonorrhea than any other neighborhood, according to the city figures.

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch