Developing the Plan

The STI Plan was developed by a Steering Committee composed of subject-matter experts from the following federal departments, agencies, and programs:

• Department of Defense (DOD)
• Department of Education (DOE)
• Department of Health And Human Services (HHS):
  • Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
  • Administration for Community Living (ACL)
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
    • Division of STD Prevention (DSTDP)
    • Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH)
    • National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP)
    • National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD)
  • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
  • Indian Health Service (IHS)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH)
  • Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP)
  • Office of Minority Health (OMH)
  • Office of Population Affairs (OPA)
  • Office of the Surgeon General (OSG)
  • Office on Women’s Health (OWH)
  • Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

The development process was guided by the OASH and OIDP. The CDC’s Division of STD Prevention provided technical and personnel support.

Public Participation and Input

The Committee’s work was informed by public input gathered during six nationwide listening sessions and comments submitted in response to a notice in the Federal Register. Well over 1,000 people and organizations from across the nation participated in the public comment sessions. They included a large and diverse group of representatives from state, tribal, territorial, and local governments; researchers; health care providers; community groups; and national and local service providers and advocates who work in STI and related fields.

The Steering Committee used that feedback to:

• Shape the goals and objectives in the STI Plan;
• Ensure that the plan includes information about groups of people who are impacted by STIs, even if there aren’t sufficient data about them at the national level;
• Ensure that language in the plan is inclusive;
• Develop a plan that makes reducing STI-related stigma a priority and addresses discrimination and social determinants of health;
• Weave STI prevention and linkage to care into a wide variety of programs in both health care and community settings;
• Integrate STI prevention and care into other public health efforts to prevent and treat HIV, viral hepatitis, and substance use disorders.

After drafting the STI Plan, the Steering Committee published a request for public comments on the draft plan in the Federal Register. A total of 253 comments from 48 commenters were received and reviewed. That additional feedback was used to revise the draft and develop this final version.

A Word About Language: Why STI v. STD?

The term sexually transmitted infection (STI) refers to a virus, bacteria, fungus, or parasite that has infected a person’s body through sexual contact. The term sexually transmitted disease (STD) refers to an STI that is causing a clear medical problem with signs or symptoms.

Some stakeholders commonly use the term STI, and some commonly use the term STD. This STI Plan generally uses the term STI because the goal is to prevent and treat infections before they develop into disease. However, in the STI Plan, the term STD is used when referring to data or information from sources that use the term STD.

Learn more about the STI Plan or download the plan to read it. Detailed information on how the plan was developed is located in Appendix A of the plan.