Alpha Health Services

DISEASE	CAUSE	ESTIMATE OF CASES PER YEAR (U.S.)*	SYMPTOMS	TREATMENT	CONSEQUENCE	EASE OF SPREAD **	CONDOM EFFECTIVENESS (for vaginal intercourse) ***
Gonorrhea	Bacteria	1 million per year	Painful urination, urethral discharge, painful sex, or no symptoms	Antibiotics	Ectopic pregnancy, sterility, severe pelvic infection	Easy	Some protection for men, no proven protection for women
Syphilis	Bacteria	70,000	Painless lump, or no symptoms	Injectable antibiotics	Brain damage, spinal cord damage, heart injury, death	Moderate	No proven protection with condoms
Chlamydia	Bacteria	3,000,000	Painful urination, discharge, high number of infections without symptoms	Antibiotics	Ectopic pregnancy, sterility, severe pelvic infection	Easy	No proven protection with condoms
Herpes simplex	Virus	1,000,000	Painful, grouped vesicles, resolve without treatment, return periodically, high number of infections without symptoms	Incurable, permanent infection, ointments or antibiotics to shorten outbreaks	Painful intercourse, serious and life-threatening infection of newborn babies	Easy	No proven protection with condoms
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome	Virus	40,000	Fatigue, recurrent mild illness, pneumonia, high number of infections without symptoms	Incurable, permanent infection, medications prolong life and control symptoms but do not cure	Life-threatening pneumonias, intestinal infections, nervous disorders, cancers	Difficult	Studies document 85% effectiveness, but study methodology may have inflated this figure
Hepatitis B	Virus	120,000	Jaundice, malaise, nausea and vomiting, or no symptoms	Vaccine before exposure is 90% effective	90% recover without consequence. Chronic illness, carrier state, liver failure, death	Moderate	Condoms not shown to be effective
Human Papilloma virus	Virus	5,500,000	Warts, most infections are without symptoms	Caustic chemicals, laser, creams, hysterectomy, colon removal	80% recover without consequence. Genital warts, cervical cancer, anal cancer, penile cancer	Easy	Condoms shown ineffective
Molluscum contagiosum	Virus		Bumps in genital area	None, self resolving over weeks or months	None	Easy	Condoms not shown to be effective
Hepatitis C	Virus		Jaundice, fatigue, itching, or no symptoms	Interferon	Liver failure, cirrhosis, death	Difficult

* Some cases are reportable to public health entities. Others are not. Some of the statistics refer to the number of reported cases. Others are estimated cases. It is well known that even in the case of reportable diseases, the numbers are far under the actual frequency of infection. Some of the estimates are from a CDC report entitled, "Tracking the Hidden Epidemics: Trends in STDs in the United States 2000". This is available on the internet at http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/dstd/Stats_Trends/Trends2000.pdf.

** Many of these diseases can be spread by sexual as well as non-sexual routes.

*** Much of the condom effectiveness data is available in an NIH document, entitled: Workshop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention. This is available on the internet at: www.naid.nih.gov/dmid/stds/condomreport.pdf. Generally the effectiveness estimates refer to consistent and correct condom usage, which is not often achieved.

Draft March 2002 by John Diggs, MD and Nancy Couch, MD

Facts About STD's

One in four people have an STD.
35 - 50 different kinds of STD's exist
63% of all STD's occur in persons less than 25 years of age.
80% of those infected with an STD do not develop the initial symptoms.
STD's are contagious even though no symptoms exist
Some STD's (such as genital herpes and genital warts) are incurable.

Alpha Health Services / Alpha Center
801 East 41st Street
Sioux Falls 57105

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