"High schools educate students about STDs, so by the time they get to college they can make informed decisions," junior Thomas Dionne said. But despite efforts to educate young adults about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases, many college students still fall prey to the diseases, which tend to target the unsuspecting and unwary.
Chlamydia is a group of infections caused by different strains of the chlamydia bacterium. Only one - chlamydia trachomatis - results in disease. The strain is one of the most widespread bacterial STDs in the US, with an estimated four million new infections each year.
As many as one in ten adolescent girls tested for chlamydia is infected. Teenage girls have the highest rates of chlamydial infection (15 to 19-year old girls represent 46 percent of infections; 20 to 24-year-old women are 33 percent) regardless of demographics or location. People infected with chlamydia are often unaware they are infected and consequently do not seek professional health care. Approximately 75 percent of infected women and 50 percent of infected men experience no symptoms.
Chlamydia can be contracted during sex with an infected partner or from a mother to baby during delivery. Once diagnosed, chlamydia can be easily treated and cured.
But left untreated, the disease can cause serious long and short-term health problems in adults and newborn babies, including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), which can cause infertility and sometimes fatal tubal pregnancy. Treatment includes a number of commonly used antibiotics, but partners must be treated at the same time.
The chlamydia test at Health Services costs $40. Last year, Health Services was very involved in a campaign to promote the screening process for chlamydia. "Most men think the testing process is painful and invasive," Tufts University Medical Director Dr. Margaret Higham said. "They don't understand that it is as simple as urinating in a cup."
Gonorrhea, second only to chlamydial infections in the number of reported cases, is an infection that is spread through sexual contact with another person caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Gonorrhea causes such long term conditions as epididymitis, an inflammation that may cause sterility in men and PID, ectopic pregnancy (a pregnancy outside of the uterus), perihepatitis (an infection around the liver), abscesses, and sterility in women.
The gonorrhea germs are found in the mucous areas of the body (the vagina, penis, genital tract, throat, and rectum). In women, the opening to the womb from the birth canal is the first place of infection. But the disease can spread into the womb and fallopian tubes, resulting in PID, which may cause infertility in up to 10 percent of infected women and tubal (ectopic) pregnancy.
Anyone sexually active person can be infected with gonorrhea, but it is more common among younger people (ages 15-30) who have multiple sex partners. Increases in the incidence of gonorrhea have been found among men who have sex with other men. It is the most common reportable sexually transmitted infection in the US, with an estimated 800,000 cases of gonorrhea reported annually.
The Molluscum Contagiosum virus is an STD that is part of the pox family. It is spread through touching (hand/genital or genital/genital) an infected person's lesions, which can transmit cells containing the virus. Intercourse is not necessary for the spread of this virus. The symptoms include small, round, raised lesions with a shiny surface and a white material inside, and the lesions maybe located on genital skin, thighs, abdomen, or even the chest. Usually there are no symptoms besides an itch near the lesion. Unfortunately, there is no test to detect Molluscum Contagiosum before lesions appear, and the lesions have to either be frozen off using a cryogenics process or with chemicals or scrapings.
Health Services recommends that preventative measures be taken by all sexually active people, but people who have more than one sex partner should especially be tested regularly. Condoms or diaphragms should be used during sexual intercourse (vaginal, anal, and oral), and Health Services distributes free condoms and dental dams.
Of course, for maximum protection, partners should form a monogamous relationship in which both are faithful - and are tested before sex. Limiting the number of sexual partners is also a wise idea; the risk for contacting a STD increases as the number of partners increases.
Students do not need to wait for symptoms to appear before getting tested, and regular check-ups for STDs can be part of a regular examination. For more specific information, Health Services has detailed pamphlets, counseling, testing, and treatment for many types of STDs.
