by: Liliana Gutierrez
what can you do?
“I get tested for HIV twice a year… one has to be socially aware. It’s part of being decent human to be tested for STDs. It’s disgusting behavior. When people don’t. It’s so irresponsible” stated by Scarlett Johansson. STI stands for Sexual transmitted infection, which is when you are exposed to an infection when being unsafe while being sexually active. We need to start talking to teenagers about STIs according to CDC “Last year, nearly 2.3 million US cases of these sexually transmitted diseases were diagnosed, according to preliminary data. That's the highest number ever reported nationwide, breaking the record set in 2016 by more than 200,000 cases, according to the CDC.” ( Howard, CNN, 2018, p.2,3). You can become infected while being sexually active while not using protection, which is really important, because if you have any signs of being infected the infection can become a disease. You should inform both adolescents and parents about STIs and how to prevent the risk of getting an infection when being sexually active because maybe they do not understand the difference between an STI and STD, some parents do not know or feel comfortable bringing up this topic, and adolescents sometimes do not know how to protect themselves when being sexually active.
To begin with, the difference between an STI and an STD is that an STI stands for sexual transmitted infection and an STD stands for sexual transmitted disease and an infection can occur twice if left untreated, which can cause a disease. No one can identify when you’re infected because most of the infections do not show symptoms but when they do which looks like a rash, blisters, and more. According to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs): General Information “Many STIs are spread through contact with infected body fluids such as blood, vaginal fluids, or semen. They can also be spread through contact with infected skin or mucous membranes, such as sores in the mouth” (Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs): General Information, 2017, p 3). The reason that some people are uninformed about the difference between an STI and a STD is because it is not something that we learn.
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