A major question facing many teenagers is whether or not to have sex. A result of having sex is contracting sexually transmitted diseases. Sexually transmitted diseases, or venereal diseases affect 10 to 12 million Americans each year. (Daugirdas 75) In the United States, sexually transmitted diseases strike an average of one person every 1.5 seconds. (76) About half of STD patients are under the age of twenty-five. (Landers 45) Nearly 2.5 million teenagers are infected with these deadly diseases. (Welsh A-5) A few types of sexually transmitted diseases are gonorrhea, herpes, chlamydia, syphilis, etc. These diseases can be fatal if not attended to. In addition to those epidemic diseases already mentioned, such diseases include syphilis, crab lice, vaginal infection caused by the Hemophilus bacterium, molluscum contagiosum, chancroid, and the list goes on and on. There are many ways to transmit these diseases.Transmission of all these diseases occurs only by intimate contact with an infected person, because all of the causative organisms die quickly if removed from the human body. (Leone 128) Although the usual area of contact is the genital, the practice of anal and oral sex also leads to cases of anal and oral infections. (130) A few of these diseases, notably chancroid and scabies, can be spread by the infected person from one area of skin to another by the hands. (Daugardis 86) Gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydial infections can also be transmitted from a pregnant woman to her infant, either in the uterus or during birth. Such congenital infections can be quite severe. Although venereal infections start at the external genitalia, they can spread to the prostate, uterus, testes, and nearby organs. (87) Most of these infections cause only irritation, itching, and minor pain, but gonorrhea and chlamydial urethritis are a major cause of infertility in women.People with sexually transmitted diseases may have no symptoms o...
