CONTENTS
HIGHLIGHTS
June, 1993 |
The Toll of STDs Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are everywhere. Gonorrhea, syphilis, and now AIDS are the most widely known, but there are more than 20 other STDs. On average an estimated 685,000 people are infected every day with an STD. Every year there are about 250 million new cases, nearly as many as of malaria (137) (see Figure 1). The consequences of STDs can be devastating: infants, infected at birth, with blinding eye infections or pneumonia; women suffering chronic abdominal pain, ectopic pregnancy, or infertility; and men with infertility. Women may suffer social consequences as well: telling a husband about an infection may lead to beatings and divorce, and husbands may abandon infertile wives. Syphilis can maim or kill infants, and it kills adults as well, sometimes years after the initial infection. Indirectly, STDs also kill through spontaneous abortion, ectopic pregnancy, and cervical cancer. Recent evidence reveals that common STDs contribute to the spread of AIDS. Infection with chancroid, chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, syphilis, trichomoniasis, or the less common STDs Donovanosis (granuloma inguinale) and lymphogranuloma venereum makes a person more likely to become infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) if exposed to the AIDS-causing virus through sexual contact (see sidebar, The Link Between STDs and AIDS). Neglected for many years, programs to diagnose, treat, and prevent these STDs are now becoming an important component of AIDS prevention programs. |