Three Things Thursday highlights three things I am paying attention to as an epidemiologist each week.
This week we are celebrating Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Awareness Week!
Talking about sex may make you uncomfortable. Conversations about sexually transmitted infections, getting tested, sharing your disease status, and condoms may make you even more uncomfortable. I get it — we live in a society where it is taboo to talk about sex, sex education in schools is often a joke, and many assume that only others are contracting STIs.
But today — I am begging you to sit with whatever level of uncomfortableness you have and listen to me talk about sex.
Conversations about preventing, diagnosing, and treating STIs are essential.
Hoping this post helps to educate and empower you
to be healthy and create healthy communities.
Did You Know?
One in five Americans have an STI right now (many do not realize it)
Each year there are more than 13 million new cases of HPV in the US
Each year more than $16 billion is spent on caring for STIs
Nearly half of all new STI cases are among young people (15-24)
STIs are on the rise among older people (60+)
The most common symptom of an STI is — NO SYMPTOMS
In states where people report being more religious/practicing religion, there are higher rates of teen pregnancy
We Need to Talk about Sex & STIs
We need to have real, honest, open, and vulnerable conversations about sex. Preaching just don’t do it is just not enough. The data show that abstinence-only education results in higher teen birth rates and more STIs (including HIV). Additionally, abstinence-only educational programs do NOT help young people delay initiation of sexual intercourse.
We NEED to talk about sex.
We need to talk about how prevalent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are — more than half of Americans will have a sexually transmitted infection in their lifetime. The need to talk about sex and infections spread via sex is desperate. We need to stop referring to talking about sex as “the talk,” as if it only has to happen once. Conversations about sex need to be ongoing. One reason they need to continue is because the rate of sexually transmitted infections among senior citizens is increasing. I talked about this increase on the news recently —
Conversations need to be nonjudgmental.
We also NEED to be addressing consent every chance we get.
New News Related to STI Treatment
Just yesterday, GSK announced the successful completion of a phase 3 clinical trial for a new antibiotic - gepotidacin - which is both safe and effective for treating gonorrhea. Just a friendly reminder — gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a bacteria called Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The infection affects both men and women and if left untreated, it can lead to infertility and other sexual and reproductive health complications. It also increases the risk of HIV infection.
This new drug, which will be reviewed by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Global Congress later this month, has the potential to help fight antibiotic-resistant strains of gonorrhea. According to the press release —
“These results highlight the potential of gepotidacin as a new oral treatment option given the rising incidence of gonorrhea worldwide including drug resistant infections.”
Let’s keep the sex talk going… What questions do you have?
To destigmatize and normalize conversations about sex, be sure to share this post with a friend or member of your family.