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It's Not Just AIDS
| Article
# : |
11177 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1993 |
3,659 Words |
| Author
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William L. Bergman, M.D.
William L. Bergman, M.D., is the medical director at Hahnemann
Health Associates in New York City and president of the World
Medical Health Foundation, a nonprofit educational and
research organization. |
While the sexually transmitted disease (STD) epidemic is a terrifying reality, in many ways it is a silent epidemic. In the privacy of their offices, doctors are seeing large numbers of STD patients. This new epidemic is a result of the increase in promiscuity that began with the sexual revolution of the 1960s.
As pointed out by Dr. Joe McIlhaney, Jr., president of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health, teenagers tend to think that STDs have always been around in the same numbers they are today. Looking at their parents' generation, who they know from accounts of the sixties have had multiple sexual partners, they may think that these older folk do not look like they were hurt by having sex as single people.
What the younger generation does not realize is that the older generation was not as likely to be infected with STDs as people are today. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) statistics reveal that one in five Americans between the ages of fifteen and fifty-five are infected with an STD, with 63 percent of the newly infected people under twenty-five years of age. The enormous increase in STD infection and of serious STDs makes it dangerous for anyone, especially young people, to have sex outside of marriage.
TRACKING THE INCREASE
Before 1960, syphilis and gonorrhea were the only important STDs, and the existing strains were easily treated. Today, however, Americans face over twenty significant STDs--some fatal, a few relatively harmless, but all contributing to the problem. It is estimated that twelve million people in the United States become infected each year.
The spread of STDs is alarming. In 1976, chlamydia was first reported; now it is the most common STD in the United States. In 1981, HIV was identified; today, between 1 and 1.5 million Americans are estimated to be infected and, in 1992, there were 140,000 deaths. Infection in the teenage population is increasing dramatically. In 1984, herpes became common, and today over thirty million Americans are infected with that virus. In 1985, we began to see an increasing incidence of human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes genital warts and cancers in both sexes.
In 1990, there was a 400 percent increase in the rate of tubal ectopic pregnancy. Not all tubal pregnancies are caused by STDs, but the huge increase is importantly the result of the rising rate of pelvic inflammatory disease
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