The solution to sexually transmitted diseases is self-control and faithfulness. It is that simple. But since the people of the world don't want to exercise self-control and don't want to be faithful to another person, you have what you have.
A person can hold two very different views of sexuality...one view held by people who have no moral rules, and one view held by people who have moral rules they attempt to live by. One view encourages seeing engaging in sex as not significantly different than eating or relieving one's self...a merely biological drive that must be sated...an entirely selfish act with little or no consequences or relationship implications, to be engaged in with whomever else you can find who is 'in the mood'. This is the view that is "respected, acknowledged and assumed" by Mr. Mermin, the Director of STD Control, in this article.
The other view is that sexual expressions are only a smaller and lesser part of a greater relationship with one special person who you know well and consider a friend, whom you have made some level of commitment to, which commitment includes the important concept of faithfulness.
Here is a link to a CDC article on sexually transmitted disease published - 11/17/15 and entitled, "Reported Cases of Sexually Transmitted Diseases on the Rise, Some at Alarming Rate"
The CDC is the Center for Disease Control, a Federal Agency of the U.S. Government. Here is its published, "Mission":
"CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. CDC increases the health security of our nation. As the nation’s health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.
Here is the article:
"Reported cases of three nationally notifiable STDs – chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis – have increased for the first time since 2006, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the 2014 STD Surveillance Report.
The approximately 1.4 million reported cases of chlamydia, a rate of 456.1 cases per 100,000 population, is up 2.8 percent since 2013. Rates of primary and secondary (P&S) syphilis – the most infectious stages of syphilis –and gonorrhea have both increased since 2013, by 15.1 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. \ In 2014, there were 350,062 reported cases of gonorrhea (a rate of 110.7 per 100,000) and 19,999 reported cases of P&S syphilis (for a rate of 6.3 per 100,000).
STDs continue to affect young people—particularly women--most severely, but increasing rates among men contributed to the overall increases in 2014 across all three diseases.
“America’s worsening STD epidemic is a clear call for better diagnosis, treatment, and prevention,” said Jonathan Mermin, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention. “STDs affect people in all walks of life, particularly young women and men, but these data suggest an increasing burden among gay and bisexual men.”
Research needed to better understand increases among gay and bisexual men
P&S syphilis among men who have sex with men (MSM) has been increasing since at least 2000. In 2014, rates of P&S syphilis increased among MSM, who account for 83 percent of reported cases among men when the sex of the partner is known. Also concerning is that more than half of MSM (51 percent) diagnosed with syphilis in 2014 were also HIV-positive. Infection with syphilis can cause sores on the genitals, which make it easier to transmit and acquire HIV.
Syphilis is currently the only STD for which information on the sex of the sex partner is reported. However, a growing body of evidence indicates that MSM are experiencing similar increases in gonorrhea and chlamydia infections– underscoring the need to further understand what is contributing to the rise.
Gay and bisexual men face a combination of social, epidemiologic, and individual risk factors that can fuel high levels of STDs. Higher prevalence of infection within sexual networks increases the likelihood of acquiring an STD with each sexual encounter. Additionally, barriers to receiving STD services such as lack of access to quality health care, homophobia, or stigma may all contribute to greater risk for this population. CDC recommends screening at least once a year for syphilis, chlamydia, and gonorrhea for all sexually active MSM.
To better identify and address specific challenges facing gay and bisexual men, CDC is concentrating research efforts to better identify and address specific challenges facing gay and bisexual men, developing educational resources for providers to engage them in sexual health services, and improving efforts to offer more culturally relevant care.
Young people still disproportionately affected by STDs
The 2014 data also show that youth are still at the highest risk of acquiring an STD, especially chlamydia and gonorrhea. Despite being a relatively small portion of the sexually active population, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 accounted for the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea in 2014 and almost two thirds of all reported cases. Additionally, previous estimates suggest that young people in this age group acquire half of the estimated 20 million new STDs diagnosed each year
Despite recommendations from the CDC and the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) for annual chlamydia and gonorrhea screening for sexually active women younger than 25, experts believe far too many young people are not tested, and therefore don’t know they are infected.
“The consequences of STDs are especially severe for young people,” said Gail Bolan, M.D., director of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. “Because chlamydia and gonorrhea often have no symptoms, many infections go undiagnosed and this can lead to lifelong repercussions for a woman’s reproductive health, including pelvic inflammatory disease and infertility.”
Preventing STDs among youth is a key priority for CDC. CDC encourages the use of expedited partner therapy (offering treatment to the sex partners of patients diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea without a prior medical exam) where legally permissible, recommending the most effective treatment options, and providing resources to state and local health departments to support on-the-ground STD prevention efforts.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has implemented a National Coverage Determination to ensure STD screening services are covered under Medicare Part B. Most plans must provide coverage for recommended sexually transmitted infection preventive services without cost-sharing under the Affordable Care Act. The Health Resource and Services Administration funds health centers to offer an array of STD prevention services and appropriate treatment.
To reduce STDs, Americans must take steps to protect themselves. For sexually active individuals, testing and treatment according to CDC’s recommendations, using condoms consistently and correctly, and limiting the number of sex partners are all effective strategies for reducing the risk of infection and consequences to health."
End of Article.
The above is a 'great' example of the principle stated in the popular movie "I Robot", when the main character says to the scientist who is not seeing the problem with the robots, "You are the smartest dumb person I have ever met". I don't doubt the people at the CDC are medically smart people, but the above article published by the organization demonstrates that their moral blindness does in fact bring them to make illogical statements. That blindness unfortunately makes their claim that "CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same" false, as will be demonstrated in the following paragraphs.
Let's start with this quote, "America’s worsening STD epidemic is a clear call for better diagnosis, treatment, and prevention,” said Jonathan Mermin, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention. “STDs affect people in all walks of life, particularly young women and men, but these data suggest an increasing burden among gay and bisexual men.”
So, Mr. Mermin, the Director of essentially preventing STD gives this priority to stopping the "STD epidemic", "diagnosis, treatment, and prevention". Mr. Mermin puts "diagnosis" as first and "prevention" as third! If he cannot see that prevention is the most important priority to stopping any disease epidemic, then he is blind.
He then alludes to "an increasing burden among gay and bisexual men". What does he mean by "burden"? Well, what he means is that homosexual and bisexual men - men who have sex with each other and, in general, have multiple 'partners' - are contracting STDs at a higher rate then the rest of the population. Let's see if Mr. Mermin EVER CLARIFIES what "burden" means in this article, for a "burden" implies something out of the control of those experiencing greater STD infection rates.
So, the next section header in the article says, "Research is needed to better understand increases among gay and bisexual men". Please, read the paragraph above. Here is the concluding statement at the end of the paragraph: "To better identify and address specific challenges facing gay and bisexual men, CDC is concentrating research efforts to better identify and address specific challenges facing gay and bisexual men, developing educational resources for providers to engage them in sexual health services, and improving efforts to offer more culturally relevant care."
So, among all the words, the core of what he says is that all that research money is needed from tax payers to "concentrate research efforts to better identify and address specific challenges facing gay and bisexual men". "Challenges facing gay and bisexual men"???You mean like the fact that in general homosexual and bisexual men prioritize sexual pleasure very high in their life and their behavior of having unprotected sex with multiple partners - some of which they barely know - on a high frequency? You mean like the fact that homosexual sex oftentimes has no other factors motivating the behavior - like relationship commitments, friendships or social conventions of courting - other than sexual lust and immediate gratification? Just how much "research" is needed to come to those conclusions?
Mr. Mermin goes on to say, "...barriers to receiving STD services such as lack of access to quality health care, homophobia, or stigma may all contribute to greater risk for this population." So, he actually suggests that "homophobia" is a factor in the dramatic rise of STD among homosexual men! So, let's get this straight, a homosexual has sex with 3 guys over the weekend, the first of which has an STD. He then spreads the STD to the 2 other guys who also have sex with multiple 'partners', thus spreading the disease exponentially. But a factor in the high incidence and spread of STDs among homosexuals is homophobia? So, what exactly does Mr. Mermin have in mind with that statement? One of the homosexuals who experiences a symptom of STD after having sex with 3 or more guys on the weekend goes to a health care provider and they run away due to their 'homophobia' and don't provide him medical services???
Want to cut through all the obfuscation language of Mr. Mermin? Simple look up these words to know why STDs are a growing STD epidemic among homosexual and bisexual men - promiscuous and licentious. Ah, but there is the problem for people like Mr. Mermin. Those concepts are moral or ethical in nature. Since Mr. Mermin is likely an evolutionary relativist, his view is that their is no wrong or right sexual behavior, therefore, his blindness to both the cause and cure for STDs. He most likely has relativism as his 'world view' or 'guiding philosophy'. And this is who is chosen by the political leadership for the Director of STD control?
The article goes on in the next section with this heading, "Young people still disproportionately affected by STDs". That should be no surprise. Young people lack wisdom and want to try what they have not yet experienced and what the culture pushes towards them very aggressively. That statistic/fact is not surprising, nor will it change significantly. It will likely get worse since the parents of the children in the U.S. are turning away from moral standards, and thus they will not pass them on to their children.
The article closes with this paragraph, "To reduce STDs, Americans must take steps to protect themselves. For sexually active individuals, testing and treatment according to CDC’s recommendations, using condoms consistently and correctly, and limiting the number of sex partners are all effective strategies for reducing the risk of infection and consequences to health."
The first statement, "To reduce STDs, Americans must take steps to protect themselves", is again a twisted statement. What do we need to protect ourselves from, the STD monster that is lurking in our closets? The problem, dear reader is not external, rather, the people who don't exercise self-control and restraint over the sexual drive are the problem, and if I am one of them, them I am part of the problem. Notice also the priority of the recommended solutions. Is prevention first? No, it is not, rather "testing and treatment" are listed first. Given the importance of the issue of an "STD Epidemic", not understanding nor communicating the priorities or solutions well is inexcusable.
So, in the last paragraph "effective strategies for reducing the risk of STD infection" are given. Wear condoms and "limiting" the number of "sex partners". These strategies would be effective if people wanted to follow them, but they don't. Those strategies have been proclaimed and propagated for at least the last 30 years or so, and yet according to the article, the U.S. is experiencing a "worsening STD epidemic". So, I guess the research money will be spent on trying to figure out why people want to have sex without relationship commitments and fidelity? Or why homosexuals like sex more without condoms? Really sad, as the people who need help perish, and those who are supposed to have the answers, don't due to their own foolishness.
Finally, the most important means to stop the spread of STDs is not even mentioned - that is how far the morality of the U.S. people has fallen. It is called "abstinence", or, refraining from what is meant to be an intimate expression of affection between two people/friends who have committed to each other for life. So, you have two very different views of sexuality...one view held by people who have no moral rules, and one view held by people who have moral rules they attempt to live by. One view encourages seeing engaging in sex as not significantly different than eating or relieving one's self...a merely biological drive that must be sated...an entirely selfish act with little or no consequences or relationship implications, to be engaged in with whomever else you can find who is 'in the mood'. This is the view that is "respected, acknowledged and assumed" by Mr. Mermin in this article.
The other view is that sexual expressions are only a smaller and lesser part of a greater relationship with one special person who you know well and consider a friend, whom you have made some level of commitment to, which commitment includes the important concept of faithfulness.
The simple truth is that if people adopted the latter view, there would NOT BE ANY STD epidemic. But to people like Mr. Mermic, the view expressed above is "unrealistic" and "like a fairytale". Perhaps most tragic, is that it seems like people like Mr. Mermic would rather live with the nightmare (and therefore have an income and power, 'job security'?) than strive to promote and bring to pass the 'fairytale'. To those given much, much will be required.
If you are a person who can see the destruction taking place and who want to help in trying to stop it, please, enter into his Life and come, join the Peaceful Revolution!