I know I am not the only one who struggles to find an article within the last six months for these blogs posts. Well, I have an article from TODAY that I am gonna talk about so settle in folks. This week we are discussing the world of STD’s. I was surprised to see so many articles on the sharp increase in STD cases when I google searched “STD 2019”. Yes thats right, an increase in STD rates and not just one type of disease but many including syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea. What I have been seeing the most of in my search through news articles in the extreme increase in cases of Congenital Syphilis from babies born to mothers infected with the organism.
Earlier this month the CDC released an article outlining that the STD spike in 2018 is continuing into this year and will more than likely continue into 2020. The most concerning part of this rise is the increased death rate in children contracting congenital syphilis from untreated mothers. There have been close to 100 infant deaths from this disease. Another issue is the lack of opportunity for treatment being offered with the closing of clinics and need for antibiotic treatment. Most of these diseases also infect without symptoms so all the increase projections are not quite accurate and could actually be much lower than the actual number of infected individuals.
To be more specific, Oklahoma has seen a 283% increase in cases of congenital syphilis since 2014. The rise of STD’s has been ongoing for the last five years which is highlighted in the other articles linked in this post. The rise could be due to many factors; lack of condom usage, decrease in clinics and health-care options for the infected as mentioned above, drug use, etc. The disease not only is potentially fatal to the fetus being birthed, but also puts the mother at extreme risk of miscarriage, stillbirths, and even death. The lack of awareness for the seriousness of STD’s and the stigma surrounding them may also contribute to the increase in cases.
Moral of the story: be more conscious of your sexual activity and ALWAYS wrap it before you tap it.
Ashley Broke's Blog 