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HEALTH
America’s Widespread STD Deception
By Gailon Totheroh
CBN News Health & Science Reporter
WARNING: Material in this story may be unsuitable for children.
CBN.com - What used to be called venereal diseases are now termed sexually transmitted diseases. Disguised under a more neutral label, STD’s have only increased. Over 50 million Americans now face a range of 30 different sexual maladies. Some of the diseases can be deadly, and most are incurable.
Misinformation is the culprit that helps keep STD’s hidden from the public.
On Valentine's Day, Secretary of State Colin Powell decided to assume the role of health advisor to the nation. Powell encouraged the use of condoms for safe
sex — no matter what anyone says. He said, "Forget about taboos, forget about conservative ideas with respect to what you should tell young people."
Then forget about truth, says physician Dr. John Diggs. "In this country today, we have, the CDC estimates, 65 million people with sexually transmitted
disease, and the vast majority of them don't know it. The two major ones, human papilloma virus and herpes simplex, are not prevented by the use of condoms. And people don't know that."
Human papilloma virus, or HPV, causes more than 80,000 annual cases of malignant cervical cancers, resulting in over 4,800 fatalities each year in the U.S.
The prevalence of HPV infection in the U.S. may be as high as 40 percent in some populations, especially in promiscuous women under age 30. There are over 75 types
of HPV associated with various disorders. Four viral types cause most of the genital warts and cervical cancers: HPV-6, -11, -16, and -18.
There are no vaccines to prevent HPV infection.
"Cervical cancer is sexually transmitted disease, and when I tell this to people in public, I know it's hard to hear cause everybody's thinking,
'Well, gee, cervical cancer, wasn't that what Aunt Mabel died of?' HPV is a very contagious organism and, yes, people have had it for years, and, yes, the incidence is increasing, and, yes,
women die from it," Diggs said.
But the most common sexually transmitted disease is herpes simplex virus know as HSV or simply, herpes.
Forty-five million Americans have HSV type 2. In most cases, that means a lifetime of recurring bouts with genital pain, ulcers and blisters. Nearly half, about 46
percent, of African-Americans over the age of 11 in this country are infected. In the past 25 years, there's been a 500 percent increase in the prevalence of genital herpes in white adolescents.
And there are several dozen more STD’s, including:
- · Chlamydia: Most women and many men have no symptoms, so it often goes untreated. Left untreated, chlamydia can lead to
pelvic inflammatory disease and then to infertility and sometimes fatal tubal pregnancy.
- · Syphilis: Now relatively rare with an all-time low of 2.2 per 100,000 population, yet cities like San Francisco and New
York are seeing increases.
- · Gonorrhea: The national rate stabilized in 2000 after rising nine percent from 1997 to 1999, yet the sexually transmitted
disease rose in 13 of the 20 cities with the highest rates.
- · HIV: Current effective treatments may embolden many to engage in risky sexual behavior.
- And most of the public does not realize that having any one STD increases the risk of getting another one — the damaged tissues caused by one microbe
allows access to another virus or bacteria.
Diggs believes that STD’s are in large part a result of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Kinsey used bad science to convince medicine and society that
unrestricted sexuality would make for a healthier, happier world.
"The effect of Kinsey on medicine is widespread. It's as wide as the fact that we're recommending that women, you know, get Pap smears every year and
in certain age groups every six months. That's because of sexually transmitted disease, it's not because people intrinsically need Pap smears that often, and that's because people keep
changing partners," Diggs said.
Diggs finds that even newborns are affected. After all, the law requires drops in their eyes to prevent gonorrhea and chlamydia. "You're having this
monumental, emotionally laden experience of bringing a new life into the world, and the first thing we're doing is trying to keep them from getting a sexually transmitted disease in their eyes.
That's pathetic," he said.
Or how about the hepatitis B vaccine hospitals want to give newborns?
"Is that because they're going to accidentally get hepatitis B from a blood transfusion in the day care? I don't think so, that doesn't happen by
accident. This is again generated to try to prevent hepatitis in teens from sexual behavior, not from accidental blood transfusions," Diggs said.
Of course, there is the entertainment media which glamorize free sex and almost never speak of the emotional, physical or spiritual consequences.
At the same time, intellectuals and feminists have pushed for women's rights, but "girl power" appears to have backfired when young women compete
with men in drinking alcohol, contributing to an increased risk of STD’s.
According to the Journal of American College Health, women who drink have incurred a 150 percent increase in unplanned sex, date rape and sexual assault
since 1993.
With trends like these and the failure of condoms to stop disease, Diggs suggests a return to restraint and character and telling the truth about STD’s.
"Well, the fact of the matter is, from a sexual point of view, our society is sicker now than it's ever been, because we have not limited our sexuality in
a way that's been, you know, ordained by God — which is one man, one woman, for life," Diggs said.
As a result of that sick society, estimates indicate 50 percent or more of the population will experience sexual abuse, depression, broken relationships and
sexually transmitted diseases. Even if society started today on the right path away from distorted views of sexuality, that journey out of the woods would require decades.
Not including HIV, the annual health care costs for treating the major STD’s are estimated at over $12 billion. Human papilloma virus costs about $5 billion
per year in treatment.
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