The SYMPTOMS of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) are often impossible to detect initially, but if your partner is infected, or you have a sexual relationship with someone who is promiscuous, then a check-up is essential. If symptoms do manifest themselves, they are likely to take the form of a discharge from the vagina, penis or anus, or itching or soreness around the genitals or anus, or a lump or rash on the genitals, anus or mouth.
• Always use a condom.
If you suspect you may have a sexually transmitted disease, you should see your doctor or clinic straight away. You can find the telephone number of your nearest clinic by looking up 'special clinic', 'venereal disease' or 'VD' in the telephone directory, or by phoning your local hospital. You will be tested as quickly as possible, and if the test is positive, you will be advised to contact your recent sexual partners, as they too may need treatment. Avoid sex until you are clear of the disease.
• Always use a condom.
AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and the disease is caused by the human immuno-deficiency virus, known as HIV Once it is inside the body, this virus invades the white blood cells, which normally fight off disease, then it multiplies and destroys them. It also breeds inside the brain. Three to four years normally elapse between infection with HIV and any subsequent development of the symptoms associated with AIDS.
• Always use a condom.
As AIDS develops the body's natural defences become depleted, and the AIDS patient is increasingly likely to contract diseases that a healthy body would normally ward off, and so rare forms of cancer and pneumonia develop. Sometimes AIDS patients are attacked by several infections at once, such as candida, herpes and TB. At the same time, the brain may succumb to increasingly severe dementia. Somewhere between one in ten and one in three of those infected with HIV are likely to develop AIDS. As yet there is no cure for AIDS. AIDS usually progresses through various infections and stages of increasing debility to the eventual death of the sufferer.
• Always use a condom.
How to avoid AIDS
• Always use a condom.
• Avoid anal sex.
• Always use a condom.
• Don't share toothbrushes, razors or any other instrument that might transfer blood from cuts or abrasions.
• Always use a condom.
The virus is present in body fluids, primarily semen and blood. It may also be present in saliva, though research indicates that saliva seems to present little risk. Having anal intercourse with an infected partner is the most likely way of catching AIDS, and 80 per cent of British cases so far have been male homosexuals.
The second most common way of contracting the disease is through infected blood. Almost a quarter of Britain's haemophiliac population now carry HIV because they have been injected with the clotting agent collected from infected blood. (Haemophiliacs are born without the blood-clotting factor, and can suffer severe bruising from a minor injury, and bleed to death from a cut unless they receive the clotting factor from donated blood.) HIV in the blood may also be transmitted on infected needles, and drug addicts are the third most highly at risk group of the population.
To become HIV positive you do not have to be homosexual or promiscuous, a drug addict or a haernophiliac. Heterosexuals are also at risk. Even a heterosexual in a steady relationship stands the risk of contracting the disease if their partner has been infected in a previous relationship. Therefore when embarking on any new relationship, it is safest to wear a condom.
Gonorrhoea is caused by the bacterium gonococcus, which cannot survive outside the body and is transmitted only by sexual intercourse, and never (as is sometimes imagined) on toilet seats or towels. In men the urethra, along which urine passes from the bladder, is infected, and there is sometimes pain on urinating and a thick discharge from the penis within a week after infection. In homosexual men the rectum may be infected, with the possibility of irritation and discharge from the anus. In women, gonorrhoea infects the cervix, urethra and rectum, and, as with men, there may be discharge and pain on urinating. If infection spreads to the uterus there is a 10 per cent chance that the fallopian tubes may be blocked, causing sterility. Often, however, there are no symptoms in either men or women.
The treatment for gonorrhoea is usually a single dose of antibiotics such as penicillin, with a check-up afterwards to make sure the infection has cleared. If gonorrhoea is not diagnosed and treated, serious complications can develop. Men may suffer epicliclymitis - pain and swelling in the testicles; women may suffer peritonitis - inflammation of the membranes of the abdomen. Both sexes could develop gonococcal septicaernia, an infection of the bloodstream with skin rashes and arthritis. In serious cases, sterility can result in both sexes. Pregnant women with gonorrhoea may pass it on to their babies, who can be born with gonococcal opthalmia, an acute inflammation of the eyes. Complications are, however, relatively rare nowadays.
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Sexually transmitted diseases
