Rise in Sexual Diseases May Signal Return of Unsafe Sex
Rise in Sexual Diseases May Signal Return of Unsafe Sex
June 29, 2000 -- Public officials are concerned that people who are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) may think that the need for safe sex is over.
Recent data showing that the incidence of gonorrhea increased in 1998 after 12 years of decline, along with reports of a syphilis outbreak among gay men in Los Angeles, are prompting these experts to ask why this is occurring and what can be done to prevent forestall the trend.
Some experts suggest that people are abandoning the safe-sex practices they adopted to prevent AIDS transmission because there are now drugs available that make AIDS seem less fearsome. With this in mind, what's needed now is more aggressive awareness campaigns aimed at encouraging condom use, they say.
Gonorrhea causes a variety of conditions, including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy. The infection also makes it easier to transmit HIV, the virus that causes AIDs. Syphilis is a bacterial infection transmitted through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. It is marked by painless red/brown sores on the mouth, genitals, breasts, and hands, followed by a rash and flu-like symptoms. If not treated, syphilis can cause heart disease, brain damage, blindness, and potentially death.
Published in a recent issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the new data show that gonorrhea rates increased 9% nationwide from 1997 to 1998. From 1985 to 1997, gonorrhea rates had declined by 64.2%, the report shows.
Overall, Midwestern states had a 16.4% increase in gonorrhea cases, while cases in the South increased by 8.7% and cases in the West rose by 6.5%. Only the Northeast states showed a decline, the report found. Mississippi had the highest gonorrhea rate, with 391.5 cases per 100,000 people, and Maine the lowest, with 5.4 cases per 100,000 people.
From January through late March of this year, 93 syphilis cases were reported in Los Angeles. Of these cases, 53 people were also HIV-positive. Typically, there are only 100 syphilis cases reported in the city per year.
Rise in Sexual Diseases May Signal Return of Unsafe Sex
June 29, 2000 -- Public officials are concerned that people who are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) may think that the need for safe sex is over.
Recent data showing that the incidence of gonorrhea increased in 1998 after 12 years of decline, along with reports of a syphilis outbreak among gay men in Los Angeles, are prompting these experts to ask why this is occurring and what can be done to prevent forestall the trend.
Some experts suggest that people are abandoning the safe-sex practices they adopted to prevent AIDS transmission because there are now drugs available that make AIDS seem less fearsome. With this in mind, what's needed now is more aggressive awareness campaigns aimed at encouraging condom use, they say.
Gonorrhea causes a variety of conditions, including pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and ectopic pregnancy. The infection also makes it easier to transmit HIV, the virus that causes AIDs. Syphilis is a bacterial infection transmitted through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. It is marked by painless red/brown sores on the mouth, genitals, breasts, and hands, followed by a rash and flu-like symptoms. If not treated, syphilis can cause heart disease, brain damage, blindness, and potentially death.
Published in a recent issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the new data show that gonorrhea rates increased 9% nationwide from 1997 to 1998. From 1985 to 1997, gonorrhea rates had declined by 64.2%, the report shows.
Overall, Midwestern states had a 16.4% increase in gonorrhea cases, while cases in the South increased by 8.7% and cases in the West rose by 6.5%. Only the Northeast states showed a decline, the report found. Mississippi had the highest gonorrhea rate, with 391.5 cases per 100,000 people, and Maine the lowest, with 5.4 cases per 100,000 people.
From January through late March of this year, 93 syphilis cases were reported in Los Angeles. Of these cases, 53 people were also HIV-positive. Typically, there are only 100 syphilis cases reported in the city per year.
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