News 8 Investigates

Brett Shipp reports.

More News 8 Investigates

• View larger
• E-mail clip
• More video

Related links:

• LINK: Dallas County Department of Health
• MORE: News 8 Investigates
• MORE: top news stories

Search Video:

DALLAS — The number of sexually transmitted diseases in Dallas County has taken a dramatic leap in the past two years.

The number of syphilis cases, for example, has doubled in a year.

News 8 has uncovered one possible reason.

Some health department caseworkers claim their bosses have encouraged them to falsify records instead of tracking infected partners.

It's a systemic breakdown that could be having dangerous consequences.

The numbers are alarming: Chlamydia cases up 50 percent; gonorrhea up 33 percent; syphilis up 100 percent.

Some insiders at the Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services are telling us one possible reason: unrealistic quotas.

The quotas have created a culture of cheating and record falsification among caseworkers which, in turn, allows STD infections to proliferate.

Risky behavior can have dangerous consequences.

Sexually transmitted diseases in Dallas are at an all time high.

It's up to Dallas County health department caseworkers to interview the infected and track down partners.

But some current and former employees who want their identities protected say their bosses have set unrealistic quotas.

"Each case is required to find three people that are connected with the positive person and a suspect... three sex partners, which is not realistic all the time," said one employee.

Partners must be contacted and blood tested before anyone else is infected.

But the case workers we talked to say trying to meet that quota has created a culture of record falsification and apathy.

"From the top on down that is highly encouraged: To do what you have to do to get the job done... that means to cheat.... in so many words that means to cheat," the employee said.

Other workers we talked to tell the same story.

The culture of cheating has, for some, made it easier to fabricate partner names than to actually go out and find them.

The potential fallout: Infected partners go undetected and are free to infect others.

One individual came forward fearing that when it becomes easier to cheat than to do the work, the sexually transmitted disease can become deadly.

"The person that the original person named could die, and then people that that person's partner was sleeping with could die," the person said.

But Dallas County health department director Zachary Thompson dismisses the allegations, saying they are coming from disgruntled current and former employees.

While he declined an on-camera interview, he told News 8: "There is no quota, and for anybody to assert that there is a quota, they need to show me where they have been given a document that they must bring in three contacts, and I'm telling you, nothing like that exists."

One case worker did supply us with what appears to be a Dallas County health department document in which officials clearly outline the requirements: "A minimum of three partners per interview must be achieved in order to comply with program minimum standards."

The document goes on to declare "a minimum of 75 percent of the cases must have an infected person found and treated."

Again, director Thompson told News 8 his STD division has no such goals because some of the infected may not have three partners.

Workers we talked with say they agree that finding as many infected partners is a worthy goal, but cheating to do it may be a reason why the odds of becoming infected are going up.

"It is goes against everything of my understanding of intervention and prevention is, what the program was designed for," an employee said.

Health department director Thompson says the number of STDs in Dallas have spiked, but there's a similar story in communities around the nation..

He also says the increase is due to better methods of screening and testing.

Thompson says the number of STDs in Dallas has gone up but are spiking all over the country.

He also says the increase is mostly due to better methods of screening and testing, and again he denies any cheating is going on or is being encouraged.

Yet, according to our sources, the culture of cheating has become so ingrained, one person told us they were encouraged to submit a sample of their own blood if they can't locate one of the prospective partners.

The workers who have come forward say they hope that with the airing of this story, these practices will come to a halt.

E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com.