Got unhappy STD news? Break it with an e-card

Breaking up over e-mail is a social no-no.
But sending an e-card telling someone to get tested for STDs may be a public health courtesy.
Since 2004, a free Web site, inSpot.org has allowed users to anonymously notify their partners to get tested for STDs such as HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.
It may not be the most personal way of delivering the news, but researchers say it beats not saying anything at all.
"When you weigh the importance of getting people notified, that's ultimately what needs to be done," said Jeffrey D. Klausner, director of STD Prevention and Control Services in San Francisco, California's Department of Public Health. "By notifying them -- even if it's done anonymously, even distantly, even with an e-card -- the benefits of getting someone diagnosed and treated outweigh the concerns of insensitivity."

When STDs lead to infertility

Doctors don't have to tell 18-year-old "Rose" (who doesn't want to reveal her real name) the importance of using a condom every time she has sex.
"There really is a limit to how much you can trust somebody," the young woman said.
At 14, Rose contracted two sexually transmitted diseases: gonorrhea and chlamydia. She said she got the STDs from her first boyfriend.
"We used condoms at first. Then, me being naïve, we stopped," Rose recalled. "I thought he was only having sex with me."
The STDs went untreated and eventually developed into pelvic inflammatory disease, or PID, a condition that can lead to infertility.
Dr. John Douglas, director of the Centers for Disease Control's Division of STD Prevention, called infertility a "down-the-road concern" for many teens.

No Drop in Incidence of Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Educational campaigns have failed to reduce the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases(STDs). Some 14,000 cases of chlamydia are reported annually. This is in addition to between 100 to 200 new cases of gonorrhoea, syphilis and HIV every year.
The incidence of syphilis is higher than three years ago. Eija Järviö, Director of the Prevention and Education Sector of the Finnish AIDS Support Centre is concerned about the problem.

With STD's on the rise, the advice is: get tested

The U.S. has the highest rate of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) in the industrialized world, with more than 65 million people infected. 19 million new cases of STDs are diagnosed every year. 1 in 4 teens contracts an STD each year.n 1 in 2 sexually active persons will contract an STD by age 25. More than $15.3 billion is spent each year to diagnose and treat STDs, excluding HIV. Nearly 1.2 million people are estimated to have HIV, and 25 percent are unaware of their infection. 50 percent of the population will likely have an STD at some point in their lifetime. STDs and HIV are preventable. To read the complete story see Saturday's Republican-American or our electronic edition at http://republicanamerican.ct.newsmemory.com.

STDs still on the rise, report says

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- In spite of prevention efforts, new cases of some of the most common sexually transmitted diseases are going up, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The report, "Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance 2007," also said that women and minorities in particular are more likely to have sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs.

That fact isn't surprising, experts say, as studies on STDs in the past have also shown that women and minorities bear the greatest burden of STDs. The age of those affected hasn't changed much either -- nearly 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year, and almost half of those affect 15- to 24-year-olds.

Funny Picture of the Day!

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Funny Picture of the Day!

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