“Am I the only one who remembers what it was like to be a kid?”
Was it like this then?
Estimating how many sexually transmitted disease or infection cases occur is not a simple or straightforward task. First, most STDs/STIs can be “silent,” causing no noticeable symptoms. These asymptomatic infections can be diagnosed only through testing. Unfortunately, routine screening programs are not widespread, and social stigma and lack of public awareness concerning STDs/STIs often inhibits frank discussion between health care providers and patients about STD/STI risk and the need for testing.
— ASHA. Sexually Transmitted Diseases in America: How Many Cases and at What Cost? December 1998.
More than half of all people will have an STD/STI at some point in their lifetime. [1]
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The estimated total number of people living in the US with a viral STD/STI is over 65 million. [2] Every year, there are at least 19 million new cases of STDs/STIs, some of which are curable. [2,3]
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More than $8 billion is spent each year to diagnose and treat STDs/STIs and their complications. This figure does not include HIV. [4]
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In a national survey of US physicians, fewer than one-third routinely screened patients for STDs/STIs. [5]
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Less than half of adults ages 18 to 44 have ever been tested for an STD/STI other than HIV/AIDS.
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Each year, one in four teens contracts an STD/STI. [6]
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One in two sexually active persons will contact an STD/STI by age 25. [7]
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About half of all new STDs/STIs in 2000 occurred among youth ages 15 to 24. [8] The total estimated costs of these nine million new cases of these STDs/STIs was $6.5 billion, with HIV and human papillomavirus (HPV) accounting for 90% of the total burden. [9]
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Of the STDs/STIs that are diagnosed, only some (gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, hepatitis A and B) are required to be reported to state health departments and the CDC.
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One out of 20 people in the United States will get infected with hepatitis B (HBV) some time during their lives. [10] Hepatitis B is 100 times more infectious than HIV. [11]
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Approximately half of HBV infections are transmitted sexually. [12] HBV is linked to chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer.
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Hepatitis A, hepatitis B and HPV are the only vaccine-preventable STDs/STIs. (Not all HPV types are covered by the vaccine, so women who receive it still need Pap tests.)
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It is estimated that as many as one in five Americans have genital herpes, a lifelong (but manageable) infection, yet up to 90 percent of those with herpes are unaware they have it. [13]
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With more than 50 million adults in the US with genital herpes and up to 1.6 million new infections each year, some estimates suggest that by 2025 up to 40% of all men and half of all women could be infected. [14,15,16]
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Over 6 million people acquire HPV each year, and by age 50, at least 80 percent of women will have acquired genital HPV infection. [17] Most people with HPV do not develop symptoms. Some researchers believe that HPV infections may self-resolve and may not be lifelong like herpes. [2]
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Cervical cancer in women, while preventable through regular Paps, is linked to high-risk types of HPV.
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Each year, there are almost 3 million new cases of chlamydia, many ofwhich are in adolescents and young adults. [8] The CDC recommends that sexually active females 25 and under should be screened at least once a year for chlamydia, even if no symptoms are present.
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About two-thirds of young females believe doctors routinely screen teens for chlamydia. [18] However, in 2003 only 30% of women 25 and under with commercial health care plans and 45% in Medicaid plans were screened for chlamydia. [19]
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At least 15 percent of all American women who are infertile can attribute it to tubal damage caused by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) , the result of an untreated STD. Consistent condom use reduces the risk of recurrent PID and related complications: significantly, women who reported regular use of condoms in one study were 60 percent less likely to become infertile. [20]
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Consistent condom use provides substantial protection against the acquisition of many STDs, including statistically significant reduction of risk against HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, and syphilis. [21,22,23]
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Some studies show that, for those who already have a clinically apparent genital HPV infection, using condoms promotes the regression of HPV lesions in both women and men. [24,25]