Billboards: one of the best mediums for advertising political candidates, personal injury lawyers and mediocre steakhouses. Recently, however, the state of Wyoming decided that they’d add a new twist to the medium, and used big billboards to address their state’s big gonorrhea outbreak. It’s brilliant.
BuzzFeed Life reports that the billboards went up as part of the Wyoming’s Department of Health’s STI Prevention program, KnoWyo. In the past year, Wyoming’s gonorrhea rate has doubled in some counties, raising serious public health concerns.
Health officials find rise in Wyoming gonorrhea cases http://t.co/KkCwDQzKIP— kpvi.com (@KPVI) July 15, 2015
With early detection, the infection can be successfully treated. Without proper medical care, however, gonorrhea can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility and epididymitis.
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While many advertising campaigns focus on subtle messaging, KnoWyo wants to make its mission as big and visible as possible. Residents are offered testing vouchers, which they can take to any of the 42 clinics across the state that offer free or low-cost STI testing.