What The Experts Are Saying About STDs
"There are three types of STD's: bacterial, parasites and viral. Viral infections have no cure. One in 5 Americans between the ages of 15 and 55 are infected with a viral STD. Eighty percent of those infected with an STD have absolutely no symptoms. I'd say we have a serious problem!"
Marilyn Morris. Abstinence: The New Sexual Revolution. 1995, p. 36. Mrs. Morris is founder and president of "Aim for Success, Inc.," a non-profit organization headquartered in Plano. She has encouraged tens of thousands of teens in various part of our country to choose sexual purity.
"An estimated 12 million new sexually transmitted infections occur every year; 2/3 are among women and men under age 25."
Facts in Brief, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, an Independent, Nonprofit Corporation for Research, Policy analysis and Public Education, Washington, D.C. 1993, p. 1.
"Three million teenagers - about 1 in 4 of those who have had sexual intercourse -- acquire an STD every year."
Facts in Brief, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, an Independent, Nonprofit Corporation for Research, Policy analysis and Public Education, Washington, D.C. 1993, p. 2.
"High-schoolers who contact AIDS "most likely will not show signs of that until after they are well out of college."
"Surgeon General's Report to the American Public on HIV Infection & AIDS, 1993," Antonio Novello, M.D., M.P.H., p. 5
"More teens have chlamydia -- a disease that can cause infertility -- than any other age group. About a third of all sexually active teens are infected with this disease."
We've All Heard that Sex is OK as Long as Nobody Gets Hurt... Well, Somebody Got Hurt, published by Medical Institute for Sexual Health, 1996, p. 2.
"Seventy percent of people who have [chlamydia] infection have no signs or symptoms. The organism may remain silent in the reproductive organs for a few days or years. But the damage can be devastating. With one infection of chlamydia a woman has a 25" chance of becoming sterile. If she gets a second infection, she has a 50% chance of sterility. After four such infections, a woman has almost a 10% chance of being sterile for the rest of her life unless she has surgery or in-vitro fertilization, and these are not always successful."
Marilyn Morris. Abstinence: The New Sexual Revolution. 1995, p. 37.
"Human pappillomavirus infection has become the #1 reason American women visit gynecologists, according to the statistics for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
OB/GYN News, August 1, 1993.
"HPV is the organism which causes venereal warts and 90% of the cancers of the cervix, vagina, vulva, and penis which are seen in Americans."
Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., M.D., Sexual Health Update, April 1994. Dr. McIlhaney is founder and president of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Austin, Texas.
"I was astonished by the prevalence of HPV infection in this college-aged, sexually active population...Results of this study highlight the prevalence of an STD that is less publicized but no less important."
Leon Speroff, M.D. OB/GYN Clinical Alert, April 1991. Dr. Speroff is chairman of the Department of OB/GYN at the University of Oregon School of Medicine, Portland, OR, and editor of OB/GYN Clinical Alert. The study to which he refers is the 1991 report by Bauer, et al, showing that 46 percent of the sexually active coeds seen at the Student Health Center at Berkeley were infected with HPV.
"I wouldn't be surprised at all if more than 50 percent of the general population is infected with HPV -- but have not developed symptoms. In fact, HPV can incubate for long periods and later become active, sometimes decades after the virus is first introduced into the system."
Edward Tyson, M.D., interviewed by Ft. Worth Star Telegram, 9/13/93. At the time, Dr. Tyson was the liaison of the Texas Medical Association to the Texas Education Agency, representing their medical authority regarding health textbook issues. He was the lead author of the reports from TMA's Adolescent Health Task Force.
"Human papillomavirus infects about 60 percent of sexually active adolescents."
Reynolds W. Archer, M.D., from speech delivered at Prevention in Focus conference, 1994.
