Issue Date: 5/11/09
STDs are growing epidemic among students
By Javier Tovar
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STDs do not discriminate against income, education, orientation, gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic location or age.
As a result, STDs continue to be a public health problem to individuals and society. There are 25 estimated STDs that spread through vaginal, anal and oral sex.
"Despite education, we still have numbers of STDs going up," said Dr. Kathleen Grove, a professor of both human sexuality and sociology at Palomar.
The amount of infections is increasing, but the challenge of getting people tested is even greater.
From all STDs, Chlamydia is the highest reported infection in the United States; standing at over 1 million diagnoses reported in 2007, an increase of 7.5 percent from 2006 and 125 percent increase from 1996.
"There are approximately 2.8 million new cases of Chlamydia in the United States each year, indicating that more than half of new cases remain undiagnosed and unreported," estimates an STD surveillance report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web site www.cdc.gov.
African American females, ages 15 to 19 have the highest rates of both Chlamydia and gonorrhea, the CDC said in a January press release.
"Studies have shown that one of the most important social determinants of sexual health is socioeconomic status," experts wrote.
There is no simple solution to this epidemic, since approximately 75 percent of women and 50 percent of men with Chlamydia never have symptoms.
"As far as symptoms, every STD is different, especially for the male," said Sue Mayfield, a registered nurse at Palomar.
Painful or frequent urination, redness of genitals, dull pelvic pain, bleeding between periods, rash or white patches on moist tissue and/or severe itching are a few of several STD symptoms for females.
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