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Section 6: STIs
D:
Geography
& control
Contents:
STIs are a global problem, and recognised as such by the World Health Organisation. In particular, STIs are more common in poor countries among poor people than in richer countries, because the poor are generally less able to resist infection.
Major progress has been made using cheap drug therapies to control STIs and in many countries levels of infection have fallen.
However, the problems of STI infection have been highlighted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, becasue there is a strong association between being HIV+ and having one or more STIs.
The overall burden of infection, especially in Africa , is high where the immune system is destroyed by HIV.
Map of STI prevalence
Click for bigger version
Click to see a bigger version of this image and a second card.
In developed countries, however, the increasing prevalences are associated with changing sexual behaviour, and especially for young adults.
One study of over 1500 hundred young Britons questioned at Ibiza airport in Spain, showed that over 50% of those travelling without a partner had sex while abroad on holiday, many with multiple partners, but only 60% had used condoms or taken other precautions for safe sex.
Little wonder then with STIs seen as a life-style phenomenon that young people become the target of health programmes and media messages about sexual health and condom use for safe sex (for example, the Valentines cards on the left - click for bigger versions - were part of a government advertising campaign targetting young people).
