Introduction
Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) now referred to as sexual transmitted infections (STI) because some people can be infected and infecting others but never show signs of the disease. Of the estimated 12 million new cases of STD/STIs, women are diagnosed with two-thirds of those cases each year in America. Contrary to popular belief, oftentimes, women are exposed to STD/STIs after just one contact with an infected partner. STD/STIs are of particular anguish among women because of the severe and life-threatening difficulties during pregnancy (Ford & Shimers – Bowers, 2009). STIs have become a significant public health problem, especially among minorities. STIs are highly prevalent among African American and Hispanic women and they cause maternal and perinatal morbidity (CDC, 2008). STIs can be the blame for a several adverse outcomes during pregnancy including abortion, premature birth, stillbirth, and low birth weight. Additionally, STIs has been proven to orchestrate the transmission of HIV and the prevalence of STIs varies among different groups of people. Thus there is a need for local community knowledge of the epidemiology of STIs by looking at and monitoring the prevalence of etiological agents.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2010) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2010), approximately two million women are impacted by sexually transmitted diseases each year in America. Some may not believe but pregnancy does not protect against STD/STIs therefore leaving pregnant women vulnerable to STD/STIs and the consequences are far more dangerous for them and their unborn fetus (CDC, 2008). This study conducted by the CDC (2008) determined that 3.2 million teenage females ...
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DiClemente, R. J., McDermott-Sales, J., Danner, F., Crosby, R. A. (2011). Association Between Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Young Adults’ Self-Reported Abstinence. Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. February, 2011; 127: 208-213.
Ford, C. A., Shimer-Bowers, E. (2009). Living with Sexually Transmitted Disease. Facts on File
Kershaw, T. S., Magriples, U., Westdahl, C., Schindler-Rising, S., & Ickovics, J. (2009). Pregnancy as a Window of Opportunity for HIV Prevention. American Journal of Public Health, November 99: 2079-2086.
McMillan, J. A., Feigin, R.D., DeAngelis, C., & Jones, M. D. (2006). Oski’s Pediatrics: Principles & Practice. 2nd ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Talashek, M. L., Alba, M. L., & Patel, A. (2006). Untangling the Health Disparities of Pregnancy. Journal of Pediatric Nurses. 11:14 - 27
The disparities may be attributed to the amount of prenatal care that pregnant women of different ethnicities receive. In 1996, 81.8% of all women in the nation received prenatal care in the first trimester--the m...
Mayo Clinic collaborative services educational publication. (2004). Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. New York, NY, Harper Collins Publishers Inc.
Cook, Selig, Wedge, and Gohn-Baube (1999) stated that an essential part of the country’s public health agenda is to improve access to prenatal care, particularly for economically disadvantaged women. I agree with this statement because access to care is very important for the outcome of a healthy mother and child. Improving access to prenatal care for disadvantaged women will not only save lives but also lighten the high financial, social, and emotional costs of caring for low weight babies. Some of the barriers that these women face are mainly structural where the availability of care is limited; the cost of care is a financial burden; and the time to seek care is problematic due to being single mothers working more than one job (Lia-Hoagberb, 1990). Additionally, there is the issue of prenatal care being delivered differently depending on one’s race. A study found that White mothers delivering ve...
McMillan, Julia A., Ralph D. Feigin, Catherine DeAngelis, and M. Douglas Jones. Oski's Pediatrics, Principles & Practice. Williams & Wilkins, 2006.
Sorensen, J., & Abbott, E. (2004). The Maternity and Infancy Revolution. Maternal & Child Health Jounal, 8(3), 107-110. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=14089739&site=ehost-live
Condom use is higher among young men who worry more frequently about AIDS when the effects of other factors are held constant. Between 1988 and 1991, however, sexually experienced teenagers showed declines in the frequency with which they worried about AIDS, how serious they thought AIDS was, and the likelihood they would get AIDS. These reductions were associated with lower levels of condom use.
Today it is no longer a novelty to hear that teenagers are having sex. However, while this “bedroom” activity may be fun, there are now ample reports indicating that rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in teenagers have skyrocketed. Current data reveal that nearly 25% of adolescent girls who have sex are infected with one of the four commonly sexually transmitted infections-namely gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes and HIV (Kann et al, 2015). Nationally, the prevalence of STDs account for 50% of cases in people under the age of 25. While every ethnic and race has been known to be affected, African American youth are disproportionately affected. These data are not a surprise to professionals who are engaged in adolescent sexual health because the numbers have been slowly creeping up over the decades, despite national educational policies to counter the threat of STDs (Sales & DiClemente, 2016). All the STDs have a significant impact on sexual and reproductive health, if they are mot promptly diagnosed and treated. Although many preventive strategies have been implemented in all communities, the rates of STDs are still increasing (Madkour et al, 2016).
Not surprisingly the lack of useful sexual information is one of the reasons of the spreading sex related diseases. According to The American Social Health Association (1998) each year there are near ten million of new cases of sexually transmitted diseases among the teenage...
March Dimes Foundation: Pregnancy and Newborn Health Education Center. Retrieved from http://www.marchofdimes.com/materials/teenage-pregnancy.pdf
Sexually Transmitted Diseases Sexually Transmitted Diseases STDs, a.k.a venereal diseases, infectious diseases passed from one person to another during sexual contact. STDs are the most common infections known. More than 12 million people in the United States, including 3 million teenagers, are infected with STDs every year. The United States has the highest STD rate in the world about one in ten Americans will contract an STD during his or her lifetime. People who do not know they are infected risk infecting their sexual partners and, in some cases, their unborn children. If left untreated, these diseases may cause pain or may destroy a woman's ability to have children. Some STDs can be cured with a single dose of antibiotics, but AIDS cannot be cured. Those most at risk for contracting STDs are people who have unprotected sex—without using a condom, people who have multiple partners, and people whose sex partners are drug users who share needles. Static’s show that Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are most likely of catching STDs than older adults, because younger people usually have multiple sexual partners than an older person in a long-term relationship. Teenagers may be embarrassed to tell their sexual partners they are infected Teenagers may also be embarrassed or unable to seek medical attention for STDs. This means that they only more likely to pass the disease to other young people and have a greater risk of suffering the long-term consequences of untreated STDs. STDs are transmitted by infectious bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and single-celled organisms called protozoa that live in warm, moist parts of the body, like the genital area, mouth, and throat. Most STDs are spread while having sex, but oral sex can also spread disease. Some STDs are passed from a mother to her child while pregnant, when the disease enters the baby's bloodstream, during childbirth as the baby passes through the birth canal, or after birth, when the baby drinks infected breast milk. AIDS can be transmitted by blood contact such as open wounds, between people who share infected needles or received through an injection of infected blood. Some people believe that STDs can be transmitted through shaking hands or other casual contact, or through contact with inanimate objects such as clothing or toilet seats, but they can’t. Chlamydeous, is from trachoma is bacterium, is the most commonly transmitted STD in the United States.
Iannelli, Vincent. The “Interview with a Pediatrician.” About.com. Pediatrics. September 30, 2012.
STI’s have become Australia’s hidden epidemic, that impact on both males and females, now and in the future. These infections take an emotional, physical and social toll on the young population of Australia, whether derived from the infection itself, or the consequences
1) Reproductive health is important for women around the world. Women with reproductive capacity require ongoing health care to protect their health and the health of their newborns. The increased and sustained investment in reproductive health will ensure that women are able to receive preventive care prior during and after their pregnancies (Singh, Darroch, & Lori, 2014). This will help decrease the number of infants deaths related to pregnancies. It will also decrease the number of deaths with pregnant women. Investing in reproductive health may decrease the burden that steams from infant and women deaths that are related to pregnancy. Reproductive health has improved globally. However, disparities still exist between developed and developing countries (Singh et al., 2014). Therefore, it is important for countries throughout the world to invest in new technologies to strengthen reproductive health in areas that lack adequate preventive reproductive health services. This will allow countries to decrease the number of still births, miscarriages, and infants and women deaths. This will return the burden of these conditions. Moreover, many
In response to high rates of HIV transmission to infants in the intrapartum and postpartum periods, the United Nations developed a four-pronged approach for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT). The four components of the PMTCT strategy include: 1) primary prevention of HIV among women of childbearing age; 2) prevention of unintended pregnancies among women living with HIV; 3) prevention of transmission of HIV from mothers living with HIV to their infants; 4) treatment, care and support for mothers living with HIV and their children and families (PEPFAR, 2010). Prevention of unintended pregnancies among HIV positive women continues to pose a challenge to the reduction of maternal-child tra...