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Anonymous
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Oral
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Call our state certified
technician today (269) 345-0725 for a free HIV screening.
What
do you know about Sexually
Transmitted
Diseases (STDs)? Is abstinence really the only answer?(quick facts)
Sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs) have
reached epidemic proportions in our country, placing the health and
lives of sexually active young people in serious peril. In the 1960s,
one in 47 sexually active teenagers was infected with an STD. Today, one in four
sexually active
teenagers are infected.
Young people need to know that having sexual relations outside of
marriage puts them at risk not only for HIV/AIDS, but also herpes,
which is incurable and may infect babies during birth, resulting in
severe damage or death. Teens need to know that they are at risk for
Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which is the leading viral STD and which
causes nearly all cases of cervical cancer. And they need to know that
scientific research shows that condom use offers relatively little
protection from herpes and no protection from HPV.
Young people across the nation are taught that proper use
of condoms
will protect them against pregnancies and all STDs. That is not the
truth! In fact, condoms, even when
correctly and consistently used, have a 14% failure rate against
pregnancies. No conclusive evidence has been
found for condom effectiveness against any STDs except for up to 85%
protection against HIV and for female to male transmission of
gonorrhea. Additionally, in January, 1998, this statement appeared in
Family Planning Perspectives, "After years of increased condom usage,
reports show that STD rates are higher than ever.'' (1)
Remaining
abstinent until
marriage is the only answer for real protection!
Here
are some quick facts:
- More than half of all
people will have an STD at some point
in their lifetime.
- The estimated total
number of people living in the US with
a viral STD is over 65 million. Every year, there are
approximately 15 million new cases of STDs, some of which are curable. (That is 41,000 a day!)
- Each year, one in four
teens contracts an STD.
- One in two sexually
active persons will contact an STD by
age 25.
- Less than half of
adults ages 18 to 44 have ever been
tested for an STD other than HIV/AIDS.
- In a national survey
of US physicians, less than one-third
routinely screened patients for STDs.
- About half of all new
STDs in 2000 occurred among youth
ages 15 to 24. The total estimated costs of these nine
million
new cases of STDs was $6.5 billion, with HIV and human
papillomavirus (HPV) accounting for 90% of the total burden.
- Of the STDs that are
diagnosed, only some (gonorrhea,
syphilis, chlamydia, hepatitis A and B) are required to be reported to
state health departments and the CDC.
- Approximately half of
HBV infections are transmitted
sexually. HBV is linked to chronic liver disease, including
cirrhosis and liver cancer.
- It is estimated that
as many as one in four Americans have
genital herpes, a lifelong (but manageable) infection, yet up to 90
percent of those with herpes are unaware they have it.
- At least 15 percent of
all American women who are infertile
can attribute it to tubal damage caused by pelvic inflammatory disease
(PID) , the result of an untreated STD. (2)
Is It
Worth the Risk To You?
(1) Source of data: Welfare Reform: A Review of Abstinence
Education
(2) Source of
data: American
Social Health
Association
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