Eight pathogens are linked to the highest incidence of STIs. Hepatitis B is a major cause of liver cancer. Babies usually get a vaccine for this infection at birth, but many adults born before 1991 may not have received the vaccine. Herpes is spread through skin-to-skin contact.
Many people with herpes may not know they have it because they don't show symptoms. However, when there are symptoms, they occur in the form of painful sores around the genitals or anus. Fortunately, herpes is highly treatable with antiviral medications that reduce outbreaks and the risk of transmission. If you have herpes and have symptoms, talk to your doctor about the antiviral medications that are right for you.
HIV is the other chronic viral STD. Thanks to modern medicine, many people with HIV can live long and healthy lives with virtually no risk of infecting others through sex. The main treatment for HIV is called antiretroviral therapy. These medicines reduce the amount of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels.
Many children get vaccinated to protect themselves against different forms of HPV. Pap smears for women detect HPV once every few years. Genital warts can be removed with creams, liquid nitrogen, acid, or minor surgery. Of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, most are curable, but may be resistant to medications that have worked before, such as gonorrhea.
In some cases, cases of hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and HPV are curable and others are not, or they may go away over time. This form of hepatitis can come from sexual contact, but also from the simple ingestion of infected food or water. Symptoms can range from dark urine to joint pain, jaundice, nausea, mild fever and severe itching. A blood test will be done to determine if the hepatitis virus is present.
There is no real cure for hepatitis A, but it can disappear from the body on its own after a few weeks or months. While all STDs are a serious health problem, the following five are the scariest, since they have no known cure. However, hepatitis A, B, and HPV usually go away on their own, even though there is no medical cure. Both HPV and hepatitis A and B have vaccines that can be vaccinated before the threat of infection.
Currently, vaccines are being developed for herpes, HIV and syphilis. Other ways to prevent infection include safe sexual practices, such as using condoms and making sure your partners get tested. The only sure way to prevent STDs is to abstain from having sex. However, making sure you are safe with all partners, getting vaccinated and getting tested frequently are the best steps to be able to enjoy sexual activity without fear of contracting an STI.
Some viral STDs stay with you for life, such as herpes and HIV. Others, such as hepatitis B and human papillomavirus (HPV), can be prevented with vaccines, but cannot be cured. It is also possible for the immune system to defeat the hepatitis B virus and HPV, but in some cases, these viruses can take hold over the long term and cause chronic infections that can last a lifetime and even cause cancer. Test results show that you have gonorrhea or chlamydia, or both.
These are sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that can cause permanent harm to you and your sexual partners if not treated in time. People get STDs by having sex with someone who has an STD. Once you're infected, you can infect another person. Both gonorrhea and chlamydia often have no symptoms.
Sometimes, only one partner will have symptoms, even if both have the condition. That's why it's important to notify your sexual partners about your test results. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is probably the best known of all STDs and is a chronic disease that seriously attacks the immune system of the infected person. If left untreated, it can develop into acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
With the development of AIDS, there is a significant decrease in the ability of the immune system to fight even the most minor infections, such as the common cold, for example. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the best medication for treating HIV and consists of a daily cocktail of several prescription pills. If taken every day, the medication can dramatically prolong the life of a person affected by HIV, alleviate their symptoms, and reduce the chance of infecting others. With the introduction of the drug in the mid-1990s, a person with HIV could live almost as long as a person not affected by the virus.
Hepatitis has five different varieties, but type B is most commonly transmitted through sex and causes a liver infection. It is the main cause of liver cancer or cirrhosis (liver failure). Hepatitis B can be prevented with a vaccine, but patients who contract the chronic infection have it for life. It is highly contagious and can be transmitted through contact with semen, vaginal fluids, blood and urine.
Protect yourself with the hepatitis B vaccine and practice safe sex. Hepatitis B usually goes away on its own after four to eight weeks, and symptoms often don't show up, and doctors recommend resting, eating well, and drinking plenty of fluids. However, one in 20 people who contract it as an adult becomes a carrier, meaning they will have chronic hepatitis B and will have the disease for life, although there are medications your doctor can prescribe to help treat it. While HIV may be the most well-known and dreaded STD, the human papillomavirus is the most common.
According to the CDC, approximately 79 million Americans are currently infected and nearly all sexually active men and women will contract HPV at some point in their lives. The problem with HPV and part of the reason it's so widespread is that the virus often goes undetected. Your partner may not show any symptoms and yet may transmit the virus through vaginal, anal, or oral sex. This virus is one of the reasons your annual exam is so important, as abnormal cervical cells can indicate HPV or cervical cancer, so be sure to schedule an appointment with your gynecologist every year.
HPV vaccine is recommended for prevention. If you develop genital warts as a result of the virus, doctors may prescribe topical medications or may have them removed. If your doctor has detected cervical precancer as a result of a Pap smear, prevention is possible if detected in its early stages. According to the CDC, 1 in 6 people in the U.S.
UU. Those between 14 and 49 years old have genital herpes, but more than 80% of people with genital herpes don't know they have it. Herpes can be contracted through vaginal, anal, or oral sex and transmission is possible even without the presence of visible sores. If you are pregnant and think you may have been exposed to the herpes virus, you should inform your obstetrician-gynecologist as soon as possible.
The infection can cause a miscarriage, premature birth, or neonatal herpes, which can be fatal. Because there are often sores on the skin in and around the genital area, condoms aren't 100% effective at protecting a person from contracting herpes, so it's extremely important to get tested. Gonorrhea responds to medications, however, there is a fast-growing strain that is resistant to the antibiotic regimen used for a long time to treat gonorrhea. About 820,000 people get gonorrhea infections in the U.S.
every year. A person with gonorrhea may not show signs, but symptoms may include discharge from the vagina or penis, vaginal bleeding between periods, pain or swelling of the testicles, and a burning sensation and pain when urinating. If you get tested and discover that you have gonorrhea, your doctor will prescribe a treatment that includes two different medications to stop the infection. This treatment cannot repair any permanent damage that the disease may have caused up to this point.
However, as we said earlier, the CDC states that new drug-resistant strains threaten the drug's effectiveness. If you find that your symptoms persist even after receiving treatment, it is important that you tell your doctor immediately. The good news is that most STDs are curable, and even those that have no cure can be effectively controlled or minimized with treatment. Your doctor can test you for the herpes virus, but you must request it by name because it is not included in common blood tests for STDs.
As an ode to his fascination with microbes, he writes the monthly STI awareness series, as well as other articles focusing on health and medicine. Some studies examined chlamydia over a year, including the first one in the 1970s, when chlamydia was first identified as an STI, and found that, among women infected with chlamydia, approximately half will continue to have it one year or more later. This STD is caused by bacteria that live in warm, humid environments, such as the rectum, penis, vagina, or even the eyes and mouth. If you may have been exposed to an STD, getting tested is the only way to know for sure and take steps to seek treatment.
Many are treatable, even curable, with antibiotics or antiviral medications, and some STDs go away on their own. However, people want to know if an STI can go away on its own, but there aren't many studies on the “natural history” of curable STDs, such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis. Before it could be cured with penicillin, syphilis was the most dreaded STD—and for good reason. STDs or sexually transmitted diseases are scary and are often considered incurable or life-altering.
They can also see asymptomatic people getting tested for STDs regularly when their test results come back positive. They are called to get treatment again, but first they are retested to see if the infections have gone away on their own. Trichomoniasis is a common STD affecting nearly four million people, of whom only 30 percent show signs or symptoms. You can't know your STD status without getting tested, and you can't self-diagnose an STD based on symptoms and then assume that the infection is gone when your symptoms go away.
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