As everyone is hiding in their houses after buying their face masks, rubbing alcohol and aloe vera (to make their own hand sanitizers) from the Coronavirus, other ravaging viruses are now able to continue to quietly spread. For example, we’ve already mentioned how the flu is killing was more people than the Coronavirus is but still is being kept on the down low. But the flu is not the only one, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, or STD’s, are also a part of this group because numbers of different STD’s are also continuing to rise. Specifically, there are three STD’s that have had large rises in their numbers. These are gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis. According to a CNN health article, this is the 5th consecutive year that their numbers have risen. Which is surprising but also not at the same time. I mean it’s surprising because I would have thought we would have heard more about this but also not surprising because I’ve heard all the scary stories of how the younger generation aren’t the smartest when it comes to protection so like of course numbers are going to rise. But today we will just stick to one of these three to talk about, let’s go with gonorrhea.
Transmission
According to Medical News Today, Gonorrhea is a STI, Sexually Transmitted Infection that is transmitted through any form of sexual contact. If caught early there are treatments but if seen later it can cause long-time complications. For example, it can cause infertility in women as it can cause pelvis inflammatory by causing infection in the uterus and fallopian tubes. The scary thing about this is that many people don’t actually know they have it because they don’t always notice the symptoms. Which is what is scary because you need to catch on that you have it quick to be able to treat but how can you when you don’t know you have it in the first place. Those who do have symptoms though have burning during urination and can show signs of discharge in both males and females. Men can see swelling in testicles while women can have increased vaginal discharge. Also, to be clear from earlier, any sexual contact means any. In the words of Dr. Cramer, “if it has the word sex in the title…it is still sex.” So just keep that in mind.
Today’s Outbreak
A recent ABC article from October of 2019, stated how the three diseases we mentioned in the first paragraph are at an all time high. This article does state though that the numbers could be rising because more people are getting tested and treated. Since a lot of the main STI’s must be reported so the amount of cases can be tracked, we can see that the numbers have risen over time. But their claim is an interesting one to think about. They said that the reason numbers are rising is that more people are getting tested and treated. Which kind of makes sense but that also means that this disease has been out there a lot and people weren’t getting tested but now they are so our numbers are rising. But I feel like this isn’t a 100% true because with the way the world (more like my generation) is, umm I don’t feel like protection is their number one priority. So like I definitely feel that the number of cases are growing just in general. But also although rising numbers are not the best, at least more people are getting educated to get tested. So to sum this all up, just be safe out there kids. And be smart!
Mo's Microbes 