Overview of Standard STDs

Overview of Common STDs

Parents Promoting Innocence

DISEASE	CAUSE	ESTIMATED NUMBER OF CASES PER YEAR (U.S.)*	SYMPTOMS	TREATMENT	CONSEQUENCE	EASE OF SPREAD**	CONDOM EFFECTIVENESS (for vaginal intercourse)***
Gonorrhea	Bacteria	700,000 (350,000 actually reported)	Painful urination, urethral discharge, painful sex, or no symptoms	Antibiotics	Ectopic pregnancy, sterility, severe pelvic infection	Easy	Some protection for men, no proven protection for women
Syphilis	Spirochete	32,000	Painless lump, or no symptoms. Variable rashes	Injectable antibiotics	Brain, spinal cord, and heart injury, death	Moderate	No proven protection with condoms
Chlamydia	Bacteria	3,000,000 (800,000 actually reported)	Painful urination, discharge, 80% of infected people have no symptoms	Antibiotics	Ectopic pregnancy, sterility, severe pelvic infection, death	Easy - Most common bacterial STD	No proven protection with condoms
Herpes Simplex, Genital	Virus	1,000,000 new cases each year. Perhaps 55,000,000 currently infected	Painful, grouped vesicles, resolve without treatment, return periodically, 90% of infected people have no symptoms	Incurable, permanent infection, ointments or antibiotics to shorten outbreaks	Painful intercourse, serious and life-threatening infection of newborn babies, death	Easy	No proven protection with condoms
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome	Virus	40,000	Fatigue, recurrent mild illness, pneumonia, high number of infections without symptoms	Incurable, permanent infection, medications prolong life and control symptoms, but do not cure	Life-threatening pneumonias, intestinal infections, neurological disorders, cancers, death	Difficult	Studies document 85% effectiveness, but study methodology may have inflated this figure
Hepatitis B	Virus	120,000	Jaundice, malaise, nausea and vomiting, or no symptoms	Vaccine before exposure is 90% effective	90% recover without consequence. Chronic illness, carrier state, liver failure, death	Moderate	Condoms not shown to be effective
Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)	Virus	5,500,000	Warts, 98% of infections are without visible warts	Caustic chemicals, laser, creams, hysterectomy, colon removal	80% recover without consequence. Genital warts, cervical cancer, anal cancer, penile cancer, death	Easy - Highest new infections. Worst in colleges	Condoms shown ineffective
Non-Gonococcal Urethritis	Bacteria	No CDC stats, but at least 500,000 cases	Painful urination	Antibiotics	Ectopic pregnancy, sterility	Easy	Condoms not shown to be effective
Molluscum Contagiosum	Virus		Bumps in genital area	Curettage or none; self resolving over weeks or months	None	Easy	Condoms not shown to be effective
Hepatitis C	Virus	25,000	Jaundice, fatigue, itching, or no symptoms	Interferon and other hi-tech drugs	Liver failure, cirrhosis, need for transplant, death	Difficult

*Some cases are reportable to public health entities. Others are not. Some of the statistics refer to the number of reported cases. Others are estimated
cases. It is well known that even in the case of reportable diseases, the numbers are far under the actual frequency of infection. Some of the estimates are
from a CDC report entitled "Tracking the Hidden Epidemics: Trends in STDs in the United States 2000." This is available on the Internet at
http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/dstd/Stats_Trends/Trends2000.pdf
**Many of these diseases can be spread by sexual as well as non-sexual routes.
***Much of the condom effectiveness data is available in an NIH document entitled "Workshop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for
Sexually Transmitted Disease Prevention." This is available on the Internet at www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/stds/condomreport.pdf. The NIH Workshop
Summary says that the term "condom ineffectiveness" will be used to mean the level of protection against STDs when condoms are used consistently and
correctly."

Modified March 2005 by John R. Diggs, Jr., MD and Nancy Couch, MD