If you engage in unprotected sex of any type or with any person you run the risk of contracting a potentially incurable disease.  Between misinformation and shame of their risky behavior people continue to contract HIV and other STDs and then spread them to other people.  We, as a nation, are not doing enough to prevent these diseases.  Is it the old puritan morality that makes people think that STDs are a punishment from God and too bad for the sinners who contract them?  It certainly isn’t very christian to look away while more people continue to suffer.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) just released information in their Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that a new strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to all antibiotics has been identified in Japan.  Although it hasn’t been seen in the US or Canada yet, health officials are concerned.  Being treated with the wrong antibiotic can create resistant strains of diseases that don’t respond to even the last resort medications, cephalosporin-class antibiotics.  One of the possible reasons for this is that gonorrhea in the pharynx, contracted via oral sex is very difficult to treat with antibiotics.

HIV also continues to be a problem in the United States and recent studies have shown that the areas of the US, especially in the South that are the poorest, continue to have the highest rates of HIV infection and AIDs.  Misinformation, for example that HIV is still a disease of only gay men, leads people to engage in risky behavior because they think they are immune.  Then, once they have contracted the disease, they may not get tested, seek treatment or may refuse to take their medication out of shame that they will be labeled as homosexual.  In the southern bible belt, this is a strong motivator to hide the disease.  Taking effective medication reduces the risk of transmission to a partner by as much as 96%.  But if you’re not getting treatment, you are continuing to spread the disease.

People, and the medical community especially, need to open their eyes and be aware of the dangers for risky sexual behavior.  We are acting like ignorance is bliss, but the word needs to get out that any type of sexual activity can make you sick.  Once you are sick, you spread the disease and now, it may not be treatable.   Wake up and pay attention, people!

Written by www.labtestingnow.com