Sexually Transmitted Disease

Running head: SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

More than 12 million Americans, 3 million of whom are teenagers, are affected with STDs each year. In 1995 STDs accounted for 87 percent of all cases reported among the top ten most frequently reported diseases in the United States. Since 1980, eight new sexually transmitted pathogens have been recognized in the United States. STDs may cause serious, life threatening complications including cancers, infertility, ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortions, still birth, low birth weight, neurological damage and death. The majority of STD cases are women and adolescents (Dickson, 2008). Reducing other STDs decreases the risk of HIV transmission. Every year approximately $10 billion is spent on major STDs other than AIDS and their preventable complications. This cost is shared by all Americans. With all of the information I have provided so far. You would think that our society as a whole would be working diligently to stop the spread of STDs. That is not the case. There is a large percentage of Americans fighting and working very hard to try and prevent all STDs. There is an even larger number of Americans who don’t care about the spread of STDs as long as they are making a lot of money. Every thing in the United States is about money everything else comes somewhere after this fact. The main source of information in the United States is the media mainly TV. Sex sells just about every TV program, commercial, advertisement, flyer etc. pushes sex. In which is so ironic because all parents do not want their teenage kids to have sex. Kids are not running the sexy TV commercials and other ads adults are. This makes you stop and think in America. Is it more important to make money or prevent STDs?

In the past STDs were called venereal disease or VD. STDs or VD are acquired mainly through sexual contact. Five diseases were traditionally known as venereal diseases: gonorrhea, syphilis, and the less common granuloma inguinale, lymphogranuloma venereum, and chancroid (J. Jacobson, 2008). The term sexually transmitted disease came about in the 1960s when 20 other diseases were recognized as being transmitted by sexual contact. The ones that people are more familiar with are AIDS, genital herpes, human papillomavirus, and Chlamydia. Other STDs are trichomoniasis, cytomegalovirus infection, group B streptococcal infections, hepatitis A, B & C, pubic “crab” lice, scabies, amebiasis, and giardiasis.

STDs is an objective of Healthy