Sexually Transmitted Diseases

For my second reaction paper, I am writing on the lecture about sexually transmitted infections that was presented by Kathryn Brown. Kathryn Brown is a health educator at the Health Care Center at Indiana University. I found this lecture to be very interesting and useful because it was the first real presentation I have had on this subject. This information is vital in our day and age because, lets face it; we are all sexual beings that need to be informed of the dangers of having unsafe sex.

Kathryn first off gave us a bit of background information on STIs. For example, most men and women (ages 18-44) seriously underestimate how common STIs are and their personal risk. Most believe its 1 in 10, when actually is 1 in 4. Another interesting fact is that more that Ð... of all people will have an STI at some point; this is not to say that everyone with one is going to be effected by it however. There can be two different types of STI, they can both be bacterial or viral and affect in different ways. Each year one in four teens will contract an STI. This is quite scary to know that our teens are being reckless and are not thinking about their health for the future. It is even scarier to know that the United States continues to have the highest STI rate of industrialized world. There is no effective national program for STI prevention. As a result of this, there is a clear need for comprehensive effort from public, private sectors; medical, educational, religious and community groups to break silence on sexual health.

This leads us into the next point of the lecture, the direct medical costs for treating STIs and complications equals to $8.4 billion. This does not include non-medical, indirect costs such as wagers, costs to treat infected infants and costs of prevention and screening. Nor does it include the human costs such as pain, suffering, grief, stigma, and shame, long-term consequences for women, infected infant-emotional suffering and stress for families.

The final part of the lecture included prevention tips on trying to avoid acquiring an STI or at least control it. Some quick tips are abstinence from oral, vaginal and anal sex, mutual monogamy with an uninfected partner, limiting the number of sexual partners, open communication with sexual partners and having regular checkups with your health advisor or practitioner.

As mentioned above,