Protect Yourself!

Welcome back to my blog! You’re going to want to stick around for this one. We are talking all things STDs. Who doesn’t love to talk about those?! I unfortunately have to be the bearer of bad news because STDs are increasing in cases and some are even becoming antibiotic resistant. What a time to be a college student! According to a recent article by Medical News Today, three of the most common STDs are becoming even more prominent today, those include gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis. From the years 2017-2018, gonorrhea cases rose 5% from the previous year, chlamydia rose 3%, and syphilis rose a whopping 14%. I would think STD rates should be decreasing with protection seeming to be more accessible these days, but boy am I wrong. STDs only continue to increase and some are becoming antibiotic-resistant, GREAT! Today we are going to keep our focus on gonorrhea and chlamydia. Sorry syphilis, we don’t want you today…or any other day.

Gonorrhea, the clap, whatever you want to call it, it’s an STD that is quickly becoming a superbug. YIKES! An STD that causes painful urination and discharge from the genitalia, not really something you want to have antibiotic-resistance to. In a Science Daily article, the way antibiotic resistance occurs in gonorrhea is explained. Neisseria gonorrhea, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, has started having resistance to drugs like penicillin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin, as drugs that were once enough to make the painful urination stop. What doctors have started doing to help with these symptoms is using two drugs that work together, however this is a type of last resort treatment. So what happens when it becomes resistant to that too? A world full of gonorrhea? GROSS.

Chlamydia is another STD that is becoming more prominent, however the difference is many antibiotics still easily clear the infection. YAY! Chlamydia has similar symptoms to gonorrhea, including discharge from genitalia and painful urination, however a major difference is chlamydia can often times be asymptomatic. Therefore, if not regularly checked for STDs, this is something that can be spread easily without knowing. An article by Avert explains the aspects of chlamydia, and what is going on with it today. So though we are still seeing a rise in cases today, we are still able to cure this STD, which is great. Another issue this article talks about is why untreated chlamydia is so terrible, other than passing it around unknowingly. Untreated chlamydia can also cause pelvic inflammatory disease, cervicitis, and salpingitis in women, and epididymitis, prostatitis, and urethritis in men. In some cases it causes sterility. So moral of the story STDs are bad, and so is drug-resistance, so USE PROTECTION!