Venereal Diseases

A Very Serious Problem
An electronic version of an article in USA Today (06/29/98) caught my attention. It was claimed that U.S. rates for sexually transmitted diseases (STD's) are 50 to 100 times greater than those of any other industrialized nation (note: that is not true for AIDS, AIDS rates are almost comparable in some European countries).

Federal health officials reported an all-time low syphilis rate, but an estimated 12 million Americans will this year contract at least one of the more than 20 STDs, such as Chlamydia and herpes. (The number of HIV positives is just over a million, I believe).

This may be consistent with the rumor that in the US, one man in five and one woman in four has been exposed to genital herpes.

This sounds Scary. It is. There is clearly a bunch of work to.

It also implies that heavy moralizing about sex, which tends to be the American approach of choice, apparently does not work too well in terms of protecting public health.

FDA and CDC
We expect to be able to go to a restaurant, eat what we like and not catch hepatitis or E-colli. So why is it that one US citizen cannot have sex with another US citizen, without the fear of catching a disease, or even risk his or her life?

If we make it a priority to ensure a safe food supply (FDA), shouldn't it also be a priority to make sure people do not carry communicable diseases?

Actually, there is a government mechanism to address the issue: the Center for Disease Control, or CDC. They are willing and capable of doing the job right. But when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases, they just need more funding. A few lousy billion dollars would probably go a long way in eradicating most STD's, with the possible exception of AIDS, which may take more money as well as more time.

So why is it not happening? According to some articles I have since read (some of them in popular women's magazines), the biggest problem is Washington. Or more accurately: the influence of the Religious Right in Washington. Any suggestion of a federal effort to combat STD's, generates an immediate outcry. Lawmakers dare not even bring up the subject, for fear of being chastised or Ostracized by their conservative electorate.

When women's groups or public service organizations try to talk to senators about the problem, they are usually dismissed with a stern "If you don't sleep around, you won't have to worry."

When bearing in mind that this country spends about 100 billion a year on drug enforcement, I tend to conclude that our priorities may be hopelessly wrong.

Public Issue
There is a perception that STD's do not concern the general public. But they do.

In principle, one could catch one from sitting down in a public restroom (especially women). One can catch one from an unfaithful lover, or from a lover who did not know that he or she had a problem.

Some women find out they have one when delivering a child, although they may not have had another partner but their husband since high-school. There have been cases of newborns being infected by herpes and dying.

There is just no other possible way to look at it. A world without STD's would be much better than one with.

Information
When I first started checking into this problem, I figured I would buy some scientific literature on the subject. I checked Barnes and Noble. I checked Borders'. I checked the section on human sexuality. I checked the medical section. Except for some social studies on AIDS, there was nothing to be found!

I can only hope that it was a coincidence. Maybe I did not look well enough. But the sad fact is that there are probably millions of people risking their health every day, because they don't have good information.

Prevention
The "official" line on the prevention of STD's is: ”don’t have sex, or if you do, make sure it is monogamous". I can't argue that; that should work, provided your partner is really monogamous and free of STD's to start with.

But it is also a little limiting. Sex is one of the great human experiences, and a lot of us choose to enjoy it with more than one person in a lifetime.

Common sense, as well as reality, indicates that most people do indeed have more than one partner. Young people especially. A University of Florida study (in the recent Newsweek Article on Sex) describes how 20% of 12th graders have had 6 partners or more.

We can ignore reality, but that is not usually a good idea.

Protection
Condoms work. They apparently do a very good job preventing the transmission of the HIV virus (AIDS). But they do not necessarily prevent all other diseases all the time. They may not completely prevent herpes and genital warts.

At any rate, one is always much safer with a condom, than without one.

Treatment
Chlamydia, gonorrhea and even the much more dangerous syphilis can be completely cured with antibiotics (at least in most cases). That would seem to imply that these diseases should have been eradicated already. All we would need to do is periodically test everybody in a certain population, and treat those who are positive. One could even consider giving the whole population preventive antibiotics and no test at all.

It would be easier than eradicating tuberculosis. It would not be terribly expensive. But we can't wait. New strains of the bacteria are appearing, which have become resistant to antibiotics. It is now or never...

Genital warts can be removed or treated, to the point that they are less contagious.

Today, there is no cure for genital herpes. The symptoms (outbreaks) go away after some time. It can still be contagious, though. Some drug companies believe that a vaccine could easily be developed. But that has not yet happened, reportedly because there is not enough public interest.


Venereal Diseases

Here is a list of common Venereal Diseas drugs to buy at 24/7 Pharmacy online drugstore:

Venereal Diseases: Diflucan 100-200mg, Fluconazole / Doxycom - Vibracina, Doxicycline / Erythromycin - Pantomicina 500mg / Flagyl 250mg, Metronidazole / Fungarest Nizoral, Ketoconazole (cream 30g) / Fungarest Nizoral, Ketoconazole (vaginal 400mg) / Fungarest Nizoral, Ketoconazole (tablets 200mg) / Salvapen - Amoxil, Amoxicillin, Trimox, Wymox / Septrin, Trimethorprim & Sulfamethoxazole / Valtrex 500mg, Valacyclovir HCI / Virmen 200mg, Acyclovir / Virmen cream 15g, Acyclovir /