An estimated 19 million new infections occur each year, most of them not HIV. Almost half are in people 15- to 24 years old.
Chlamydia diagnoses are skyrocketing. Syphilis, at an all-time low nine years ago, is increasing steadily with a big boost in men.
Although its numbers are fairly stable nationwide, gonorrhea still occurs more than it should.
The southeastern United States has the highest rates of those three, said Toney, a professor with the University of South Florida College of Medicine’s infectious diseases division.
Getting people tested for STDs and teaching them how to keep from getting infected involves issues similar to those reported by Polk County’s HIV/AIDS outreach workers, Toney said.
HIV/AIDS gets the attention, in large part, because of the number of people who die from it. The statistics for other STDS didn’t seem as compelling or deadly, despite the sterility, infertility and pain they can cause.
But here are some statistics that can put STDs in a whole new light:
People infected with other STDS, like gonorrhea or syphilis, are at least 2-to-5 times more likely than uninfected people to get HIV infection when exposed to HIV during sex. That’s according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s true for all races.
Higher rates of poverty among blacks than whites, accompanied by socioeconomic barriers to prevention and treatment, are associated with their higher rates of both STDs and HIV.
Syphilis and herpes, producing sores and ulcers, make it much easier for the HIV virus to get into the body.
“You need less virus to cause an infection,” Toney said.
With gonorrhea and chlamydia, inflammation pushes cells that could get infected closer to the surface, again making HIV infection easier.
Blacks had about 70 percent of reported gonorrhea cases, 48 percent of all chlamydia cases and 46 percent of syphilis cases nationwide in 2007, the CDC reported. They’re about 12 percent of the population.
Black teenagers who are 15-to-19 years old have the highest rates of chlamydia or gonorrhea of any group, CDC said in January.
Black women were 16 times more likely to have syphilis than white women, 15 times more likely to have gonorrhea and seven times more likely to have chlamydia in 2006, according to the Black AIDS Institute’s report on “The State of AIDS in Black America 2009.”
Many cases of STDS don’t get diagnosed. Some don’t cause symptoms or the symptoms are mild. Some common viral infections, like human papillomavirus and genital herpes, don’t get reported.
Collectively, the CDC estimates STDs cost the U.S. health system as much as $15.3 billion a year.
Because of the link between HIV and other STDs, Polk County’s outreach workers often test for both when they’re doing community programs such as the one being held in Haines City today for National HIV Testing Day.
Combatting STDs has to take place through the offices of individual practitioners – doctors, nurses and advanced nurse practitioners – nationwide.
CDC recommends annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women younger than 25. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening all high risk, sexually active women for gonorrhea. CDC agrees with that recommendation.
Toney is affiliated with a Southeast Regional STD-HIV Prevention Training Center in Tampa that trains health-care providers in diagnosing, treating and managing sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV. Its standard courses are one to five days long, but there are some alternatives.
The center formed in 1988 because of Florida’s high rates of sexually transmitted diseases. It has gotten CDC funding since then. It’s also the only state-supported STD-HIV prevention center of this type.
The Hillsborough County Health Department also is involved

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What do you call a condition that’s widespread in humans and often symptom-free, yet can lead to cancer? Dangerous.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as one in four women are infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV), and the numbers are rising, especially among young women.

Some HPV types can cause genital warts. Other HPV types can cause cancer in the genital area. But most people who have HPV don’t know it, because the virus often has no signs or symptoms. Because of this, the virus can spread without any parties involved becoming aware of its transmission.

According to the CDC, about 20 million Americans are infected with HPV. Another 6.2 million Americans become infected each year. About 74 percent of new infections occur in 15- to 24-year-old men and women.
“It is very prevalent,” said Diana Gaviria, Health Officer for the Berkeley County (W.Va.) Health Department. “We see women from their mid-teens up through their 30s being diagnosed, and I’d say that most of them are women in their teens and 20s.”

The CDC predicts more than half of all sexually active men and women will become infected at some time in their lives. “HPV is such a common virus that anyone who is sexually active can come in contact with it and become infected,” Gaviria said.
According to CDC, HPV is only transmitted through sexual contact. However, intercourse is not necessary because it can be transmitted with any kind of genital contact with someone who has HPV. The virus is not found in bodily fluids.

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