Suddenly a new host of sexually transmissible diseases are surpassing previous scourges of VD.
Shockingly they threaten even infants and children with pain, sterility and untimely death!
WHY HAVE SO many been ignorant of — or blinded their minds to — the greatest communicable disease problem of our age?
Venereal diseases take their name from the word Venus, the ancient Latin goddess of love and beauty. But there is nothing lovely or beautiful about these diseases.
Health officials may call for more aggressive educational programs to increase public awareness of these crippling diseases in hopes of stemming their accelerating spread. But The Plain Truth makes clear the only solution to stop these epidemics!
Why New Diseases
A long and growing list of sexually transmissible pathogens — many unknown a decade ago — has been recognized only recently. Some of the newly recognized diseases now rival or surpass the unconquered plagues of syphilis and gonorrhea, especially among teenagers and young adults.
It is important to make clarifications about some of these pathogens to avoid unmerited self-recrimination or embarrassment.
The term venereal disease is now dropping out of usage among health officials. It is being replaced by a more encompassing term — sexually transmitted or sexually transmissible disease (STD). Sexually transmissible disease is the most accurate term.
STD describes the true picture of the venereal disease problem as it includes not only diseases spread almost exclusively by sexual contact but other diseases capable of being spread by sexual contact and by non-sexual or unhygienic means.
Some cases of these diseases are not related to promiscuity, marital infidelity or other sexual indiscretions. Some STDs can develop within faithful marriages or with no sexual contact at all. (In a few rare cases, even syphilis, gonorrhea and herpes, type 2, can be picked up by nonsexual contact)
Yet, while certain cases of STDs have nothing to do with immoral behavior, most of the STD epidemic is caused by promiscuous, free-wheeling and permissive sexual conduct. Health authorities estimate between 20 and 30 percent of highly sexually active persons have one or more of these diseases.
Shocking Sterilizer
Researchers have been startled to discover that there may be a greater infectious agent causing genital infections and sterility than gonorrhea.
The recently pinpointed pathogen is chlamydia trachomatis. Some health authorities estimate chlamydia (pronounced "kla-mid-ee-uh") is already two or three times more prevalent in human populations than gonorrhea.
Before its identification it was treated with general antibiotics as a relatively harmless unspecified nongonococcal infectious agent of the urethra or of the vagina. But far from being relatively harmless, chlamydia is now known to be one of the greatest causes of pelvic inflammation and infertility in adults, and blindness and pneumonia in infant children.
The symptoms of chlamydia are similar to gonorrhea. The bacterium duplicates itself within the cells of the mouth, intestine, lungs and genital region until the growing colony destroys the infected cells and moves on, often leaving scar tissue.
In the United States and other developed nations, chlamydia is thought to be mostly transmitted by sexual contact. However, in developing nations, chlamydia is also commonly transmitted by unhygienic contact or unhygienic practices, especially the improper disposal of human wastes. In these nations, the pathogen is responsible for producing epidemics of trachoma and blindness.
Males with venereal symptoms of chlamydial infection suffer inflammation and discharge from the urethra. Infected females may have abdominal pain or abnormal vaginal discharge. That's with symptoms.
The catch is, in the words of Dr. William Bowie of the division of infectious diseases at the University of British Columbia in Canada, "When you screen people for chlamydia, you find 50 percent who have it have no symptoms." This alarms Dr. Bowie and other health officials. Chlamydia, they have found, is more subtle in its infectious patterns than gonorrhea but can be just as devastating. Symptomless infections can suddenly produce tragic tissue damage and health consequences.
After testing female students at the University of British Columbia, Bowie found chlamydia present in 7 percent of the population, an incidence 10 times higher than gonorrhea.”To me that's a frighteningly high figure," he said.
To compound the problem, researchers have found that 20 percent of men and up to 60 percent of women who have gonorrhea also have chlamydia. But whereas penicillin may be effective against gonorrhea, it is useless against chlamydia. Only tetracycline or more powerful drugs are effective. Lesser antibiotics used against this disease pathogen, or against resistant strains of gonorrhea, may only drive symptoms, if any, under-ground. Infected persons feel they are cured, only to have the pathogen wreak havoc later.
A recent study of infertile women in France found 25 percent of the infertility was due to chlamydia. Other studies in Europe have found it involved in up to 60 percent of women with pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID often leads to sterility, pregnancy problems or female organ complications.
A University of Washington prenatal clinic found chlamydia in 5 to 20 percent of groups of pregnant women. A New Orleans study found 23 percent of inner-city pregnant women, mostly blacks, had a chlamydia infection, but most didn't know it.
"The real victims of today's STD explosion are babies and mothers — and would-be mothers," said a worried gynecologist. There is a better than 50 percent chance that an infant passing through an infected birth canal, and infected, will develop an eye disease or pneumonia. Hence the explosion in cesarean births.
"Infertility from tubal scarring might be more often related to chlamydial infection than gonococcal infection," says Dr. King K. Holmes, STD authority at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Seattle.”Our group has disturbing data showing that the fetuses of women having chlamydial infections during pregnancy are at increased risk for premature death, stillbirth and neonatal death."
Chlamydia not only sterilizes as a consequence of pelvic inflammation. But because it causes strictures in sexual organs it is thought to be to blame for alarming increases in ectopic (tubal) pregnancies.”Since each of these pregnancies represents one fetal death, this constitutes an epidemic of fetal deaths," says Holmes. Despite surgery, the majority of these cases end in sterility or permanent sexual tissue damage.
A single case of pelvic inflammatory disease can result in infertility 20 percent of the time, even if treatment starts at the first sign of infection. Three episodes of PID puts the infertility rate at 75 percent.
"Adolescent girls often delay treatment because of ignorance or embarrassment, until their tubes are wiped out," commented an assistant director of adolescent medicine at the University of California's Medical Center in San Francisco.”The sad thing," she says, "is that the reproductive future of these girls is erased before they've even had time to think about it." Many she reports, become despondent when they realize they can't have children.
Scourge of Genital Herpes
Also competing for the position of the number-one infectious STD is genital herpes, technically known as herpes simplex, type 2.
A decade or so ago it was a little-known infection. Today, according to Dr. Mary Guinan of the Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, it is "probably the most wide-spread of all venereal diseases."
The disturbing part of this virus is that once you have it, you have it for the rest of your life. The majority of persons infected with genital herpes suffer recurring infectious blisters. While the frequently painful lesions can often be alleviated by medical treatment, the disease is incurable since the virus retreats deep into tissues.
So far, every treatment that has shown promise has failed to knock out the virus.”Genital herpes is the disease which keeps many venereal disease specialists monogamous," says one health official.
While adult herpes sufferers frequently find their lives emotionally and socially upset, greater tragedies afflict the newborn. Half of all babies passing through a herpes-infected birth canal become infected. And one quarter die or are brain damaged. Furthermore, there is a high correlation between herpes, type 2, infections in women and cancer of the cervix, although the virus has not been absolutely identified as the cause.
Again it is important to make distinctions when discussing the herpes problem. There are many herpes viruses. Some manifest different symptoms or hit different parts of the body.
Herpes simplex, type 1, is a common, normally nonvenereally passed virus that causes cold sores on the lips, mouth or above the waist. It is often found in a third or more of population groups. This virus is usually transferred by personal contact with others, by kissing or using the same eating utensils during infectious periods.
Genital herpes, however, is almost always transmitted in sex-related contact. Even autoinoculation from an infected area can transfer any herpes virus to other mucous-membrane openings. Oral-genital sex practices also spread herpes viruses to reverse areas. It is dangerous to pass any herpes infection to the eyes.
Because of the sudden growth and emotionally upsetting nature of genital herpes, the American Social Health Organization has established a program called HELP. Herpes sufferers in the United States needing assistance or information on the nearest sources of medical advice can send a self-addressed envelope with their request to HELP, Box 100, Palo Alto, California, 94302. Phone: (415) 328-7710. Persons in foreign areas needing help should contact their nearest health agency.