T O P I C R E V I E W
Heather
Member # 3
posted 08-04-2000 09:51 AM
A CDC report was released today, which showed the following:"From 1997 to 1998, the gonorrhea rate increased by 16% in the Midwest, 9% in the South, 7% in the West, and 0.8% in the Northeast (in the United States).
From 1996 to 1998, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Texas reported increased gonorrhea rates greater than 10%"
and...
"From 1997 to 1998, the gonorrhea rate increased 11% among women and 7% among men. In 1998, the gonorrhea rate among young women, aged 15 to 19, and young men, aged 20 to 24, increased by 11%."
This is the second study lately showing that rising rates in sexually transmitted disease are mainly amoung young women.
bettie
Member # 78
posted 08-04-2000 01:51 PM
Miz Scarlet, how many people do you think that means have gonorrhea? A USA approximate is fine. I am guessing it is on the rise because people still aren't using condoms and other safe sex measures and they are spreading it to their parnters. It is scary because most people who have STD's don't even know it.
Lady Moonlight
Member # 384
posted 08-04-2000 02:13 PM
In the high school where I used to teach (small, rural, conservative district) the administration made the biology teacher stop giving out condoms. She wasn't leaving buckets of them in the hall, mind you, she kept a stash in her desk and kids had to ask her for them. Probably the only reason she wasn't fired was that she had been there forever, had tenure, and was well-respected in the community.This same district didn't teach sex ed until 9th grade. No wonder we had at least 2-4 girls (out of a total student population of 350 students) pregnant every year. I cringe when I think of what their STD infection rate must be.
I gave a talk on date rape to one of the classes there once. One of the guys said, "You mean you're supposed to TALK about sex? No way, man! Jeez, that's too embarassing!"
I just thought of all that when I read in your post that the Midwest leads in gonorrhea. How depressing.
Heather
Member # 3
posted 08-04-2000 02:18 PM
I think too, Lady (and Bettie, I'll have to pull up some data for those figures...gimme a bit), there is still the overriding assumption that people with sexually transmitted diseases are: - homosexual or promiscuous - drug users - urban or ignorantWe had new neighbors move in downstairs, and as you can imagine, what I do for a living, when it comes up, usually ends up resulting in people asking me sex questions. Anyway, the two guys downstairs are typical recent college grads. They just moved to the city here from the suburbs, and one of them has never been tested for STDs, even though, as he told me, he only uses condoms for the first few times he is with someone.
Why? As he said it to me he has "never slept with dirty girls."
Too many people assume that someone who looks clean and well-kempt is therefore well, which isn't a good way to guess when it comes to STDs since most of them don't have obvious symptoms, and more times than not, it is those people who are LESS sexually experienced who both don't get tested and who don't practice safely.
Lady Moonlight
Member # 384
posted 08-04-2000 02:25 PM
quote: Originally posted by Miz Scarlet:Why? As he said it to me he has "never slept with dirty girls." Too many people assume that someone who looks clean and well-kempt is therefore well, which isn't a good way to guess when it comes to STDs since most of them don't have obvious symptoms, and more times than not, it is those people who are LESS sexually experienced who both don't get tested and who don't practice safely.
*Shakes head in dismay*
All I've got to say is that if he can see right down to all those itty-bitty germs he's got better eyesight than me.
Yikes.
Heather
Member # 3
posted 08-04-2000 02:28 PM
::cringe::Gawd, I hate it when I do an insanely long run-on sentence and it ends up being one that gets quoted.
I hang my linguistically-muddled head in shame, I tell you.