U.S. STD Cases on the Rise for the First Time Since 2006

[Psalm 51:17]

https://www.yahoo.com/health/us-std-cases-on-the-rise-for-the-first-time-152224487.html
U.S. STD Cases on the Rise for the First Time Since 2006
11/18/15

Reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis have risen for the first time since 2006, according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Getty Images)

The CDC’s 2014 STD Surveillance Report, which was released on Tuesday, paints a disturbing picture. Among the data, chlamydia cases are up 2.8 percent since 2013, and gonorrhea cases are up 5.1 percent. Syphilis cases increased by a whopping 15.1 percent.

“STDs continue to affect young people —particularly women — most severely, but increasing rates among men contributed to the overall increases in 2014 across all three diseases,” the CDC said in a press release.

STD cases are increasingly sharply among gay and bisexual men, and primary and secondary syphilis (the most infectious stages of syphilis) have been on the rise among men who have sex with men since 2000. In 2014, 83 percent of male cases of syphilis were from gay or bisexual men.

Not surprisingly, young people are at the highest risk of acquiring an STD. The data found that people between the ages of 15 and 24 made up almost two-thirds of all reported cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea, but CDC researchers say there may be even more undetected cases.

Unfortunately, women are the most impacted by these increases. “In terms of anatomy, vaginas leave women more exposed and vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) than male anatomy, since the **** is covered with skin which serves as a good barrier for several STIs,” Herbenick explains. “Then there are issues of gender and power, and many women feel unable to insist on condom use, even when they want to use a condom.”

Related: Signs You Have One of the 3 Most Common STDs

The news sounds disturbing — and it is, sexual health expert and certified sex  therapist Kat Van Kirk, PhD, tells Yahoo Health.

“Unfortunately I am not surprised by these findings,” she says. “Many smaller communities have noticed a rise in STDs just this year. I have also noticed a much more lackadaisical attitude from clients in regards to STD transmission in the last year.”

Debby Herbenick, PhD, associate professor at Indiana University School of Public Health and author of “Sex Made Easy” echoes the sentiment, telling Yahoo Health that the findings are “very important.”

But why is this happening? Herbenick says a few factors may be at play, and a relaxed attitude toward condom use and testing for sexually transmitted infections are largely to blame.

Better STD medications and a lowered fear of contracting an STD, including HIV, may also be a factor. “While the availability of the HIV prevention drug Prep has been hugely beneficial, it has also led to lower condom use and therefore higher rates of other STDs which the medication does not protect users from,” Van Kirk says.

Increased use of Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives (LARCs), which include intrauterine devices and implants, could be to blame as well, Herbenick says. “They are wonderful for preventing pregnancy but don’t do anything in terms of STI prevention,” Herbenick says. Women who use LARCs may feel that they’re protected, she explains, even though they’re not.

Related: Introducing an STD You’ve Never Heard Of

Inconsistent sex education standards across the U.S. and an increase in casual hookup sex could also be factors, says Van Kirk.

But experts say there are several solutions — and they’re all fairly easy to implement.

The biggest: Use condoms. Herbenick encourages people to use condoms for at least one month longer than they feel they should with a new partner and never to stop using condoms until they and their partner have both been tested for STIs.

Herbenick also stresses that more people need to be tested for STDs, including those who recently had a break-up or divorce, people who have never been tested, people who have been cheated on or have cheated on a partner, and those who are entering a new relationship.“I cannot encourage STI testing enough!” Herbenick says.

For more information on the new data, please visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Health on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have a personal health story to share? We want to hear it. Tell us atYHTrueStories@yahoo.com.

[Mark]

STD's on the rise - 'Swiping right' & online dating could be to blame

Sexually transmitted diseases are on the rise for the first time in roughly a decade and online dating could be a contributing factor.

'Swiping right' and knowing very little about the person you're meeting online, could be factors in the latest numbers.

Reported cases of three STD's -- chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis -- have increased for the first time since 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Young people ages 15 to 24 account for nearly half of the 20 million new cases of STD's each year, which cost the United States an annual $16 billion.

The biggest spike is in the rate of syphilis, up 15-percent since 2013.

With more and more Americans turning to online and mobile dating sites, it's hard to know how much of a role that behavior may play, but the nature of these sites means cases of disease are also hard to track, says Dr. Peter Beilenson, CEO of Evergreen Health.

"Public health succeeds by tracking the partner and getting that person treated. And with online dating and people not even knowing who the person is, if you come down with chlamydia or gonorrhea, let's say, and you want to make sure you treat the partner, there's no way of knowing who the partner is."

http://foxbaltimore.com/news/nation-world/stds-on-the-rise-swiping-right-online-dating-could-be-to-blame

[Psalm 51:17]

Sadly, we're in a day and age where pretty much every institution you can think of is corrupt to the core - for example, it's come to a point where it's very hard to find a decent local church.

Don't get me wrong, I like fellowshipping online, and this is a good message forum to do so - however, by and large, you do NOT, and WILL NOT know anyone, period, just by reading a handful of their posts online. You need to have a lot of interactive face-to-face communication to at least decently get to know the person.

Pt being that we're at a time period now where we're finally seeing the rotten fruits of sin really ripen now.

[Mark]

WHO urges shift in STD treatment due to antibiotic resistance

Growing resistance to antibiotics has complicated efforts to rein in common sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday as it issued new treatment guidelines.

Globally, more than one million people contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or infection (STI) every day, WHO said.

"Chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis are major public health problems worldwide, affecting millions of peoples' quality of life, causing serious illness and sometimes death," Ian Askew, head of WHO's reproductive health and research division, said in a statement.

WHO estimates that each year, 131 million people are infected with chlamydia around the globe, 78 million with gonorrhoea and 5.6 million with syphilis.

More than one million people contract a sexually transmitted infection (STI) every single day, WHO medical officer Teodora Wi said.

Until recently, the three diseases, which are all caused by bacteria, had been fairly easy to treat using antibiotics, but increasingly those drugs are failing, WHO said.

"Resistance of these STIs to the effect of antibiotics has increased rapidly in recent years and has reduced treatment options," the UN agency said.

Resistance is caused, among other things, by doctors overprescribing antibiotics, and patients not taking the correct doses.

Injected into the buttock or thigh

Strains of multidrug resistant gonorrhoea that do not respond to any available antibiotics have already been detected, while antibiotic resistance also exists in chlamydia and syphilis, though it is less common, it said.

When left undiagnosed and untreated, the three diseases can have serious consequences, causing pelvic infamatory disease and ectopic pregnancy in women, and increasing the chances of miscarriage, stillbirth and newborn death.

They can also greatly increase the risk of being infected with HIV, and untreated gonorrhoea and chlamydia can leave both men and women infertile.

To rein in resistance, WHO on Tuesday presented new guidelines aimed at ensuring that doctors prescribe the best antibiotics, and the right doses, for treating each specific disease.

To reduce the spread of the diseases, national health services will need to "monitor the patterns of antibiotic resistance in these infections within their countries," Askew said.

For gonorrhoea for instance, WHO recommends that health authorities study local resistance patterns and advise doctors to prescribe the most effective antibiotic with the least resistance.

For syphilis, meanwhile, WHO recommended a specific antibiotic—benzathine penicillin—that is injected into the buttock or thigh muscle.

It stressed that condom use was the most effective way to protect against STD infection.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-health-advice-infections-transmitted-sex.html