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Sexual/y Transmissible Diseases
EVENYOU
Could
Beconte Infected!
by
Donald D. Schroeder
With stunning rapidity, new sexually t ransmissible diseases
are surpassing previous seourges of VD.
Here's what you must do to minimize your chances of infection!
S
U D DENLY,
mank in d
finds itself fac.e t o fac.e
with sorne of the most
sinister infec.tious diseases of
this or any century.
Sexually transmissible dis–
eases- such as A IDS, chla–
mydia, genital herpes and more
than 20 others, many rarely
seen or heard of befare-are
rampaging ou t of control in
many nations.
Millíons once ignorant of what in
the past was called the si lent epí–
demic are getting a rude and pain–
ful awakening to the
number one
serious communicable disease
problem of our age.
No longer are the scourges of
syphilis and gonorrhea the most
frequent or most devastating of the
sexually transmissible diseases.
And sex ual misconduct is not
always ínvolved in the spread of
sorne of these newer diseases.
This is what is so alarming to
health officials and what so many
fail to grasp about this crisis.
AIDS Epidemic
From a handful of cases that first
appeared in a few homosexual men
4
in the summer of 1981, vírus–
caused AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Synd rome) has ex–
ploded into a frightening world–
wide epidemic.
The costs are goíng to be stag–
gering, say health officials, as the
vi r us- once primarily afflicting
homosexual and bisexual men, drug
addicts sharing infected needles
and hemophilíacs acquiríng the
virus from infected blood transfu–
sions-spreads to otber segments of
society, mostly because of promis–
cuous sex practices and contami–
nated ínjections.
"AIDS is a sexually transmitted
disease, not solely a gay disease,"
says Dr. J ames Curran,
one of America's top
autborities on sexually
transmissible diseases.
At present in the
United States, Canada,
Europe and Australia,
around 75 percent of
AIDS cases are occur–
ring in homosexual and
bisexual men. Around
17 percent are occur–
ring in intravenous drug
abusers in the United
States. Blood tests that
show an antibody re-
sponse to the AIDS virus indicate
around two thirds of homosexual
men in San Francisco have evidence
of having contact with the virus,
while around half of maJe gays in the
Los Angeles area have.
Further, a few studies of intrave–
nous drug addicts showed 50 to 60
percent tested positive to contact
with the AJOS virus (i.e., were
infected by the virus). A great
many female prostitutes are known
to be intravenous drug users.
The question is not whe ther
AIDS can be spread by convention–
al heterosexual sex; it can. The
question now is how rapidly it is
going to spread among " sexually
AIDS rapidly destroys
cells of immune
system with greatest
reproduction rate of
any known virus. lt
produces many
genetic variations
that hinder
development of an
effective vaccine.
AIDS vlruses (spheres
wlth dark centers)
attack wall of a
T·cell.