ATLANTA – A plan to curb high rates of sexually-transmitted diseases in Georgia has found an unlikely champion at the Gold Dome.

Rep. Rick Jasperse, the Republican lawmaker from north Georgia better known for gun bills, is making a case to allow doctors to treat people infected with chlamydia and gonorrhea without seeing them in person.

The bill, which Jasperse has dubbed “The Buddy Bill,” offers legal protection to physicians who write prescriptions for not just a patient but also a patient’s sexual partners.

The approach unsettles some in the medical community who say it’s irresponsible to treat people without being in contact with them.

But Dr. Ruth Cline, a gynecologist and obstetrician who practices in Athens, said it is only “ideal” that a partner seeks independent treatment for a sexually-transmitted disease.

“Unfortunately, that isn’t the reality of what we see,” she said.

Chlamydial and gonorrheal infections are most common among young Georgians, particularly women between the ages 20 and 24. They are easily treated with a single dose of antibiotics but bound to reappear if only one partner receives treatment.

That can lead to repetitive treatments, or potentially to bacteria becoming resistant to treatment.

“If you treat the person who comes into see you and you don’t treat the sexual partner, then you might as well not treat anybody,” said Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, who leads the House Health and Human Services Committee, at a recent meeting.

But the treatment allowed under Jasperse’s bill isn’t just for those in committed relationships.

His proposal qualifies all of a patient’s sexual partners to benefit from a prescription. There’s no limit to how many people can receive medication.

Jasperse said that causes some to question whether the bill promotes promiscuity.

Cline was quick to dismiss such concerns in an interview, adding that those who benefit are not “sexually naïve.”

“These are women who are sexually active, and by treating their partners, you’re not going to be all of a sudden instilling sexually active behavior because they’ve already been there, done that,” she said.

If anything, she said, the law may create awareness of how common chlamydia and gonorrhea are in the state.

Georgia has the eighth-highest rate of gonorrheal infections in the country. It ranks ninth in chlamydia infections.

That means for every 100,000 Georgians, about 515 are infected with chlamydia and 144 with gonorrhea.

“People don’t think it’s going to happen to them. They think certain kind of people get (infections), not them,” said John Rogers, a public health educator with the South Health District, which is based in Valdosta. “They don’t realize how much there is out there.”

To educate lawmakers about their prevalence of these infections, Jasperse has been carrying around a spreadsheet that shows data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“So I’ve learned a lot about your counties,” he told lawmakers recently, offering to share the information.

Metro Atlanta counties lead the state in total number of cases, but rural Chattahoochee County near Columbus topped the list for chlamydia infection per capita, followed by Dougherty County and Terrell County.

In Rogers’ backyard, Lowndes County had the ninth-highest rate in the state for chlamydia infections, with 5,022 cases over five years.

It ranked seventh for gonorrhea, with 1,667 cases.

Chlamydia can cause serious problems when untreated. For example, it can cause tubal disease, which can lead to infertility. Pregnant women can pass the infection onto newborns. If not treated in time, chlamydia can require surgery, such as a hysterectomy.

What makes chlamydia especially dangerous is that it often comes with no symptoms, leading physicians to regularly screen women who are under the age of 26 or pregnant.

Rogers said that’s one reason that infected people often do not seek treatment. Other deterrents include the stigma that comes with having a sexually-transmitted disease and, to a greater extent, poverty and lack of access to healthcare, he said.

State health officials say the Buddy Bill can’t fix all those problems.

But it would add Georgia to a list of 38 states that allow this approach to treating sexual partners, known as expedited partner therapy, to reach more infected people quickly. Another half-dozen states are considering it.

“The main thing is you want to just stop it,” said Rep. Bruce Broadrick, R-Dalton, a co-sponsor for the bill and a pharmacist.

That’s why Jasperse said he’s taken up the uncomfortable issue, which he said his daughter brought to his attention, telling him he should do something that helps “real people.”

Jasperse is probably best known for his “Guns Everywhere” bill, which passed two years ago and allowed concealed carry in more public areas. He’s also a co-sponsor of a bill allowing guns to be taken onto college campuses.

He openly acknowledged that he’s abandoned his comfort zone with the Buddy Bill. That much was clear at a recent committee meeting, when Cooper called him out for eluding mention of how these diseases are spread.

“I thought you were going to go 20 minutes presenting this bill without saying ‘sexual intercourse,’” she said.

She added: “We are talking about communicable, sexually transmitted diseases.”

Jasperse took a different tact when he presented the bill later, this time at the House Rules Committee.

Early in his spiel this week, he added this aside:

“Sex. There, I said it.”

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.