Sexually transmitted infections (STI) are an ailment that almost anyone who’s sexually active will encounter at some point in their life. While STIs have been around for centuries, a recent spike in reported cases of STIs in the United States has become a cause of concern for organizations like the CDC. According to the CDC, cases of syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia in the U.S. had increased by about 100,000 cases from 2018 to 2019. The CDC believes that this increase in STIs is the result of a decline in condom use, increased number of screenings, as well as budget cuts that have resulted in sexual health programs at both the state and local level being defunded. These health programs being defunded has ultimately resulted in many areas being left without a place to safely get counseling and testing for STIs, leading to many being untreated and contagious to others.
This increase in the amount of STI cases has resulted in other rates such as the number of congenital infections increasing as well as STIs contracted by the mother spread to her child. An infant can often contract a congenital disease from their mother as they pass through the birth canal and come into contact with mucus membranes that spread the STI to the infant. With this rise in STIs, and as a result other health crises like congenital diseases, many organizations and researchers have begun to look for new ways to cure and prevent some of these infections. One of the STIs that is being heavily researched and tested to find a cure for is the human papillomavirus (HPV). As HPV is the most common viral infection of the reproductive tract in both men and women, it is vital that a cure or prevention is found.
While low-risk strains of HPV can usually be taken care of by one’s immune system, high-risk strains of the virus can’t be eliminated by the body and can eventually lead to certain types of cancer. While there is no definitive treatment for HPV yet, a vaccination for HPV is being administered to prevent future HPV infections and cancers caused by the high-risk HPV strains. There are three main different types of HPV vaccines that are being used widely around the world with one containing the two most common high-risk HPV strains, a second that contains four HPV strains, and a third that contains nine HPV strains. Studies show that the bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines protect against the high-risk strains of HPV and the cancers they cause the best. As various types of STIs continue to increase in occurrence around the world it is important to monitor the progress of the creation, and the effectiveness, of various preventions and cures. It is also extremely important to get tested for STIs if one is sexually active to ensure that both one’s self and their partner(s) are being as safe and healthy as possible.
References
Stack, Liam. “Sexually Transmitted Disease Cases Rise to Record High, C.D.C. Says.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Oct. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/health/cdc-std-study.html.
Wiley. “Assessing different HPV vaccines and vaccine schedules in adolescent girls and boys.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 November 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191122093428.htm>.
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