|
Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Risk Behaviors and Transmission
Risk Taking Behaviors
Any activity that puts you in contact with the following body fluids:
Blood
Semen
Vaginal secretions
The activity does not have to be sexual intercourse for you to become infected.
You and you alone control your behavior and your value system will determine your behaviors.
It is important to focus on prevention in the present and immediate future. Staying healthy now is of the utmost importance. It is an investment in YOUR Future!
Prevention Strategies
Risk Elimination
Maintaining a lifestyle that does not include any behaviors that put you at risk of HIV/STD infection, including sexual intercourse (vaginal, oral and/or anal).
Risk elimination is an investment in a person's future opportunities and choices.
Use of alcohol or other illegal drugs, and any needle-sharing activities will inhibit your abilities to make healthy judgments.
Prevention Strategies
Risk Reduction
Using techniques that reduce the risk of disease transmission which include abstinence from sexual activity as well as injection drug paraphernalia.
Prevention Strategies
Safer Sex
Sex involving use of risk reduction techniques. This type of sexual activity is safer than unprotected sex, but still contains some risk of disease transmission.
Sex within a monogamous, trusting relationship between people who have tested negatively for HIV and other STD's, don't share needles, and have no other risky behaviors.
Spread of a Sexually Transmitted Disease
Chain of Infection
Agent
The germ or pathogen, which produces an infection.
Agents include:
Bacteria
Viruses
Fungi
Animals
Reservoir
A place where germs survive.
Place of Exit
Where the germ leaves the reservoir
Mouth, nose, anus, genitals and breaks in the skin
Methods of Transmission
How the germ travels from host to host
Direct Transmission
close, intimate contact
Indirect Transmission
Something else carries the germ, insects, food, contaminated water
Place of Entry
Where the germ enters the next host, usually the way it exited the old host
Susceptible Host
Condition of the body for infection; is the body healthy?
Remember when one person has an STD, someone else has it too!
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease(PID) is a serious complication of STD's.
Many people never develop symptoms
Women are two times less likely to show symptoms
Spread during vaginal, oral or anal sex:
Contact with the following fluids spread the STD's:
Blood
Semen
Vaginal secretions
Chlamydia
Chlamydia is the most common STD !!!!
Symptoms
Women
Increased vaginal discharge
Vaginal itching
Burning or pain while urination
Bleeding between periods
Men
Watery or cloudy discharge from the penis and burning pain during urination.
Treatment-Antibiotics
Sexual partners need to be tested and treated, whether they have symptoms or not!!
Gonorrhea
Known as the clap
Caused by bacteria
Spread by sexual contact and from mother to baby during birth.
Found in body fluids from the penis, vagina, mouth or rectum and is spread by direct contact.
Complications:
Long term complications in men may include:
Epididymitis, an inflammation of the testes.
Long term complications in women:
Ectopic pregnancy, a pregnancy outside the uterus and sterility.
Symptoms
Appear in 2 to 14 days if at all
Men are more likely to show signs of infection
Men
Painful urination
Green, pus-like penile discharge
Testicular pain
Women
Green, pus-like discharge from the vagina,
Painful urination,
Bleeding between periods,
Excessive bleeding during period,
Lower abdominal pain.
Herpes
The Herpes Simplex Virus(HSV) causes herpes.
HSV Type 1 Oral Herpes
causes infections on the lips or mouth (cold sores and fever blisters)
HSV Type 2 Genital Herpes
causes sores or blisters in the genital area
Viruses from the mouth can infect the genitals and virus from genital can infect the mouth
Herpes Infection
By direct contact
(touching, kissing, rubbing)
Herpes Infection
By having sex, vaginal, oral or anal.
Herpes Infection
From mother to baby during birth, baby can get severe infections.
Symptoms
Painful bumps on the lips or mouth that turn into blisters or open sores.
Symptoms
Painful blisters or sores on or around the penis, vagina, labia, or rectum
Symptoms
Blisters fade away and return
Treatment
There is no treatment for herpes and therefore, outbreaks of the virus can occur throughout a lifetime.
Nongonococcal urerthritis
(NGU)
Caused by bacteria
Spread by sexual contact
Symptoms-Male
Inflammation of the epididymis and urethra,
Mucus discharge,
Burning feeling during urination.
Female
Inflammation of the vagina and cervix,
Unusual discharge from the vagina,
Many time there are no symptoms.
Trichomoniasis
Caused by a protozoan,
Germ can survive a few hours on damp towels, clothes etc.
Symptoms
May or may not occur,
May be a yellowish vaginal discharge, itching, and burning.
May be a discharge from the penis,
Some women and most men have no symptoms,
Usually transmitted sexually,
Causes an infection in the vagina and an abnormal vaginal discharge.
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
Most serious and common complication among women is PID, an infection of the upper genital tract.
PID can affect the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, or related structures of the female.
PID can lead to infertility(20%), ectopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, 1 million cases of acute PID per year.
ยท Chlamydia can enter the fallopian tubes and cause the scarring that blocks the normal passage of the egg to the uterus,
Pubic Lice: Pediculosis Pubis
Infestation with pubic, or crab, lice
Transmitted by direct contact with infected area or infected clothing, bed linens, towel, toilet seat
Symptoms
Black spots in pubic hair, itching
Summary of STD Facts
Gonorrhea
Caused by bacteria,
50% of those infected show no symptoms,
Men are more likely than women to show symptoms,
Treated with antibiotics.
Chlamydia
Most common STD,
Caused by bacteria,
Infected people usually show no symptoms,
Treated with antibiotics.
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)
Infection of the upper genital tract of the female,
Many women show no symptoms,
Can be life threatening,
Treated with antibiotics.
Herpes
Caused by a HSV virus
HSV 1 causes oral herpes,
HSV 2 causes genital herpes,
Spread by sexual contact,
Painful blisters or sores,
No cure, outbreaks can reoccur,
Drug treatment will lessen symptoms.
Trichomoniasis
Parasitic infection,
Spread through sexual contact,
Germ can survive for a few hours on towels etc.
Many infected people show no symptoms.
|
