When it comes to STD awareness, AIDS will always be the most notorious name to fear. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is finding that rate of syphilis infection throughout the United States has been growing for the first time in more than a decade. Which means folks aren’t using protection during, furthering their exposure to the possibility of contracting the deadly immune deficiency disease.
Syphilis happens to be curable but Michael Weinstein, President of the Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is preaching is shouldn’t even have to get to that point.
“These infections spread easily and can be detrimental to public health if they are not mitigated by responsible health practices like regular condom use, which is still required for Truvada as PrEP to be effective anyway,” he said in a national statement. “Our goal with this campaign is that people will be driven to contribute to decreasing these rates by preventing transmission in their own lives, and also to remind people that syphilis is a serious health risk that they need to be tested for to catch it before it causes significant damage to their organs.”
CDC’s most recent study showed the national syphilis rate rose to 4.6 percent after it had been as low as 2.1 percent in the previous decade. The combat the potential epidemic, the AHF launched a campaign that highlights California, which represents the second highest state in syphilis cases.
“There is no pill to prevent syphilis, or gonorrhea or any other sexually transmitted infection besides HIV,” Weinstein added, giving every sexually active citizen something to ponder.
For more information how to protect your overall health, visit www.aidshealth.org and www.freeSTDcheck.org.
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Photo: AHF
