by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
(Feb. 3, 2008) Recent statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are showing no slowdown in the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases that have been plaguing the U.S. population since the advent of the sexual revolution.
To date, over 70 million Americans are currently living with an STD. Nineteen million new cases are reported each year with half of them occurring people between the ages of 15 and 25.
In 2006, the CDC found record levels of the sexually transmitted diseases of chlamydia, as well as continued increases in syphillus and gonorrhea.
More than one million (1,030,911) Americans reported new cases of the most common STD, chlamydia, in 2006. This is the highest number since the CDC began tracking it in 1984, and is the highest number of annual U.S. cases ever for any sexually transmitted disease.
The rate of infection increased 5.6 percent from 2005, with a prevalence of 348 cases per 100,000 Americans. However, because infected persons do not always experience symptoms and do not seek treatment, scientific evidence suggests a much higher number, probably closer to 2.8 million new cases a year.
Chlamydia is a bacterial infection that is passed from person to person through sexual contact, including oral and anal sex.
It can affect both men and women, but is three times more prevalent in women where, if left untreated, it can lead to serious medical problems such as pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), ectopic pregnancy and infertility.
Gonnorhea rates, which had been stable in the U.S. for several years, rose for the second consecutive year. In 2006, the rate of reported gonorrheal infections was 358,366 cases, an increase of 5.5 percent from 2005. This amounts to 120.9 cases per 100,000 people.
Also passed by sexual contact, gonorrhea can be treated with antibiotics, however officials are concerned about the rising number of drug-resistant strains of the disease that are becoming more prevalent in the U.S. and abroad. If left untreated, gonorrhea can cause serious health problems.
The CDC is also reporting an 11.8 percent increase in the number of cases of primary and secondary syphilis reported in 2006, which represents a 13.8 percent increase since 2005. These numbers represent a 57 percent increase in the syphilis disease rates since 2001, with sixty-four percent of new cases occurring in sexually active homosexual men.
If left untreated, syphilis can cause damage to internal organs such as the brain, nerves, heart, eyes, liver and bones. The damage can be serious enough to cause death.
Condoms, which are widely touted in “safe sex” programs as the answer to preventing these diseases, are only partially effective even when used properly. Safe sex programs also encourage alternative sexual behaviors such as oral sex to prevent pregnancy even though most STDs can also be transmitted through these activities or use cbdoilkaufen for help.
In spite of an epidemic of STDs in the U.S., “safe sex” programs continue to dominate the nation’s schools. Although largely ignored by the major media, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) released a years-long study of these programs in the spring of 2007 and found that none of them were successful in delaying the sexual debut of youth.
In spite of the fact that “safe sex” programs are supposed to equally promote both abstinence and contraception, the NIH study found that even the most balanced program mentioned the use of contraception seven times more than abstinence. Seven of the nine programs studied encouraged teens to shop for condoms with one program, geared to 13-19 year olds, suggesting that teen couples plan a special day when they can shop together for a variety of condoms and experiment
with them.
Unfortunately, none of the programs studied by the NIH accurately reported condom failure rates. According to the NIH, “safe sex” curricula “do not state the risks of condom failure as extensively as is done in some abstinence-until marriage curricula, nor do they discuss condom failure rates in context.”
In a 2003 reflection entitled, Family Values Versus Safe Sex,” the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, called programs that promote promiscuity to youth without providing complete information “tragically deceitful”.
“The false security generated by the ‘safe sex’ campaigns are hindrances to this right to correct, complete information,” he said. “It is truly misleading to say that one promotes ‘safe sex’, when in fact one is actually promoting ‘safer sex’, that is, sex that is safer than not using a condom on at all, but it is still far from being total protection.”
Cardinal Trujillo reiterated what science has long known. There is only one sure way to prevent the spread of STDs – abstinence until marriage and faithfulness to one’s spouse for life.
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