Every minute, 23 Americans contract a sexually-transmitted disease. Sixty-three percent of the staggering 15 million Americans who will get an STD this year are under the age of 25.
STDs are a serious problem, and our society is not doing enough to combat it. Sixteen states do not currently provide education about sex or STDs in public schools.
This needs to change. The United States has the highest rate of STDs in the industrialized world. Estimates range anywhere from 50 to 100 times the rate in other developed countries.
This is not because Americans have sex earlier or more frequently. The average age for the first sexual experience and general level of sexual activity is almost identical in America and other industrialized nations such as France, Canada, Germany and England.
However, American teens and young adults are much more likely to have sex with multiple partners and engage in sexual relationships much more freely. There is also a significantly lower use of contraception in the United States.
The partisan divide over all policy issues concerning sex has made both the political left and right overlook the fact that this problem directly affects our entire society. More than 85 percent of the most prevalent communicable diseases in the United States are transmitted sexually. STDs cost $17 billion in national health care each year.
Another troubling aspect of our sexual health is the nature of the diseases themselves. Two viral STDs, herpes and HIV, are with the afflicted for the rest of their lives. Modern medicine has no cure and very little treatment to offer. New strains of gonorrhea have become resistant to several kinds of antibiotics that were formally used to treat the disease.
Many STDs can go unnoticed for months or even years, living in the body but not causing any symptoms. One of every three Americans infected with HIV is unaware they have it.
Part of the reason that STDs are overlooked is because they are stereotypically connected to Third World countries, intravenous drug users and homosexuals. Although these stereotypes are not wholly without statistical evidence, the single most common factor among Americans who contract STDs is age. One out of every four sexually active American teens will be infected with a sexually transmitted disease every year, and AIDS is the number one cause of death among people age 25 to 44.
College students are 10 times as likely to contract HIV as the general population. Almost 10 percent of women in college have an STD. One survey reported that 19 percent of all college students currently have an STD, but the survey was conducted on only 6,000 students.
A friend of mine is very fond of summing up his world view by saying, “No human is anything more than a life support system for a reproductive organ.” Sex is a part of life. Rambunctious coeds fresh out from under the parental thumb are as notorious for sleeping around as they are for getting drunk, experimenting with drugs, and — in Eugene at least — starting riots.
But there is a line between having a good time and taking unacceptable risks. Every person must draw that line for himself or herself. This life support system recently developed a very different perspective on casual sex. I was exposed to an STD last year.
The STD was a serious one. I was exposed by someone who attends the University and who knew she was infected. I didn’t get it, but you might not be
so lucky.