A ccording to Laurel Pregnancy Center in Maryland, the United States has the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the world.
Twenty five percent of the fifteen million who will catch STDs by the end of the year will be teenagers. More than half of them will be African American teenagers. Herpes in white American teens have increased 500% in the past twenty years.
“It’s because teenagers are not educated,” says sixteen-year-old Courtney Miles of Midwood High School. “They’re not educated about STDs and the harms they can inflict.”
Washington D.C.’s Advocates for Youth agrees. They also say that other factors contribute to the rise of STDs in this country, especially HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) in African American women. These factors are poverty (in 2003, 25% of African Americans lived in poverty, the highest rate of poverty is not among Asians, Hispanics, and whites), discrimination (because of the evident discrimination against black americans, especially, against those living in the South, there are fewer opprotunities in employment, perseverance, equal education and health care, thus leading to a high rate of STDs among blacks), lack of access to health care (in 2003, nearly 20% of African Americans were uninsured, the largest group of uninsured people living in America), disproportionate incarceration (63% of incarcerated people were African American and Hispanic, even though these two demographics represent only 23% of citizens living in this nation), conspiracy theories (“AIDS was created in a government lab”; “The government promotes the use of condoms in order to limit population growth among blacks”; “HIV and AIDS constitute genocide carried out against blacks”), and survival sex (certain unfortunate situations might take people engage in unprotected sexual activity with more than one partner.)
Among the most known curable STDs are Chlamydia and gonorrhea, both bacterial diseases that can be treated with antibiotics. If not treated, both can become severely dangerous. Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which may possibly cause infertility in women, and swollen testicles (epididymitis) which can cause sterility in men, are only two of the numerous results of untreated Chlamydia and gonorrhea.
As for incurable STDs, there is genital warts which in hand, is caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV). One who is infected with genital warts has sporadic and unpredictable outbreaks of little bumps that appear on the sexual organs and parts of the body. Genital warts can be easily spread by just having physical contact with an infected person. It can also be spread with the usage of a condom because these bumps can appear around the penis or vagina.
The most deadly viruses that society has seen have been HIV and AIDS. These viruses cannot be cured, only controlled with large amounts of pills that must be taken daily. According to HIVinsight.ucsf.edu, since 2006, there have been 4.3 million new HIV infections worldwide. UNAIDS estimates that by the end of last year, there were about 39.5 million people living with HIV and AIDS worldwide.
There are countless more STDs that people, especially teens, are infected with. However, 80% don’t know it. Thus. they don’t seek the medical attention that they need and put others at risk.
“I feel angered about the rise of teenagers catching STDs,” says Courtney in a low voice. “Something needs to be done–and soon.”
