STD Info. researched by Ryan

Ryan's Page on
Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Reality is fine and good, as long as you get your shots first.

-Bryon Palmer

Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Herpes, Chlamydia, Genital Warts, Hepatitis, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)/Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

This is my page devoted to the wide world of STD's. Yes its true they're out there and they want you as a host. There are tons of them so I figured I'd give you some information about them.

Syphilis, infectious disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum (see BACTERIA) and usually transmitted by sexual contact or kissing. Infection from contaminated objects is infrequent, because drying quickly kills the organisms. A fetus carried by a woman with syphilis may contract the disease, a condition called congenital syphilis.

Historical Background
Authorities believe that syphilis was introduced into Europe in 1493 by crew members returning from Christopher Columbus's first expedition to America; by the 16th century, syphilis had become the major public disease. The spirochete responsible for syphilis was discovered only in 1905, however, by the German zoologist Fritz Schaudinn. In 1906 the German bacteriologist August von Wassermann developed the first blood reaction test for the disease's diagnosis, and in 1909 the German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich discovered the first effective treatment: the arsenic-containing compound Salvarsan. In 1943 the antibiotic penicillin was shown to be highly effective against syphilis, and it is still the preferred treatment for the disease.
Effective therapy and intensive public-health measures reduced the number of cases reported in the U.S. from 106,000 in 1947 to 25,500 in 1975, but the number rose again to more than 39,000 cases in 1988. During the 1970s most cases of syphilis in men occurred in homosexuals, but the increase in the 1980s appeared to be largely among heterosexuals. This trend increased the incidence of congenital syphilis, which causes a high rate of morbidity and mortality in infants. People who also have AIDS are more likely to develop serious forms of syphilis and to suffer relapses after treatment that usually would be curative.

Stages and Symptoms
    The primary stage of syphilis is characterized by a small lesion, called a chancre, which appears at the site of infection three to six weeks after exposure. Fluid from the chancre is extremely infectious. In the secondary stage, occurring about six weeks later, a generalized rash appears. Painless ulcers develop in the mouth, and broad, wartlike lesions, which also are highly infectious, may appear in the genital area. Headache, fever, and enlarged lymph glands are sometimes observed. These symptoms usually disappear in 3 to 12 weeks.
    The disease then enters a latent stage in which no outward signs or symptoms occur, but inflammatory changes may take place in the internal organs. The latent stage can last 20 to 30 years. In 75 percent of the cases, no further symptoms appear. When the final stage, tertiary syphilis, does occur, however, it may produce hard nodules, called gummas, in the tissues under the skin, the mucous membranes, and the internal organs. The bones are frequently affected, as well as the liver, kidney, and other visceral organs. Infection of the heart and major blood vessels accounts for most deaths.
    A prominent part of neurosyphilis, which occurs in nearly 15 percent of the tertiary cases, is tabes dorsalis, or locomotor ataxia. Also present are a lack of muscular coordination, loss of urinary control, and degeneration of the reflexes; psychosis may ensue. Infection in the uterus may lead to miscarriage, to stillbirth, or to the birth of a child with congenital syphilis. Infected children often bear typical signs, such as high forehead, saddlenose, and peg-shaped teeth. By the second decade of life, central nervous system deterioration may appear.

Diagnosis and Treatment
Syphilis is detected by symptoms and verified by one of several tests performed on the blood or spinal fluid, the most common of which is the VDRL (venereal disease research laboratory) test. The preferred drug for treatment is benzathine penicillin, which is given in two injections one week apart for all stages but neurosyphilis. For this advanced stage, the antibiotic is given three times at weekly intervals. Syphilis control includes tracking down all sexual contacts of infected persons and treating those who had contact during the infectious period. Use of condoms offers some protection against contracting syphilis.

Gonorrhea, infectious venereal disease of humans, spread by sexual contact, which primarily involves the mucous membranes of the urogenital tract. Characterized by a discharge of pus, it is caused by the gonococcus bacterium, Neisseria gonorrhoeae.The incubation period is two to seven days.

Symptoms and Diagnosis
    Gonorrhea is much more obvious in males, who develop an acute discharge of pus from the urethra. Scant at the start, it becomes progressively thicker and heavier and causes frequent urination, often with a burning sensation. Should the prostate become infected, the passage of urine is partly obstructed. In females the infection occurs in the urethra, the vagina, or the cervix. Although discharge and irritation of the vaginal mucous membranes may be severe, more often few or no early symptoms appear.
    Gonorrhea is diagnosed readily by staining a smear of the discharge to reveal the bacteria. Treatment in the early stages is usually effective. If the disease is untreated in the male, the early symptoms may subside but the infection may spread to the testicles, causing sterility. In the untreated female the infection usually spreads from the cervix into the uterus and Fallopian tubes, causing pelvic inflammatory disease. Severe pain may occur, or the infection may linger with few or no symptoms, gradually damaging the tubes and rendering the woman sterile. In both sexes the gonococcus may enter the bloodstream, resulting in arthritis, heart inflammation, or other diseases. Gonorrhea in pregnant women may be transmitted to the infant during birth and may, if untreated, cause a serious eye infection.
Treatment
    Penicillin is commonly used against gonorrhea, although over the years an increasing number of penicillin-resistant strains have developed. Other effective antibiotics include tetracycline, spectinomycin, and the newer ones called cephalosporins, one of which, ceftriaxone, can cure uncomplicated gonorrhea, including infections resistant to penicillin, with a single injection.
Gonorrhea increased greatly in the U.S. in the 1970s and early '80s, almost reaching epidemic proportions in adolescents and young adults. In most large cities clinics have been established where young people can get treatment. One of the most difficult tasks in controlling gonorrhea is locating all recent sexual contacts of an infected person in order to prevent further spread of the disease.

Herpes (Greek herpein, “to creep”), name applied to several types of skin eruptions characterized by formation of blisters. The term embraces primarily two distinct disorders, herpes simplex and herpes zoster, both caused by viruses. Other herpes viruses include Epstein-Barr virus, the cause of infectious mononucleosis and cytomegalovirus, which can lead to birth defects when the virus invades pregnant women. Together, these viruses are estimated to cause more human illnesses than any other group of viruses.

I've read recently that gonorrhea is contractable through both oral and genital sex. So perhaps people should be rethinking their whole no-condom-during-oral-sex thing that a lot of people seem to have. It may be low risk for HIV but that doesn't mean it is during other forms of sex.
Herpes Simplex
Two types of herpes simplex are known. The first causes cold sores or fever blisters—an eruption of blisters that often occurs during the course of or after one of a variety of diseases associated with fever (most commonly colds, influenza, and pneumonia). The blisters usually appear around the mouth and on the lips (herpes labialis); about the nose, face, and ears; and in the mouth and pharynx. The causative virus has been shown to be present in the cell bodies of the facial nerve in people who do not have blisters. It is this reservoir of latent virus that is the source of repeated attacks. Except for lotions to relieve pain, itching, or inflammation, no established therapy has been developed.
The second type of herpes simplex virus is the usual cause of genital herpes. Herpetic infections of the genital area have become increasingly common. Sometimes accompanied by headache and fever, the condition usually begins with a mild itching, followed by the development of clusters of blisters that break and crust to form scabs that eventually dry up. The process may last one to three weeks. In many cases new clusters of blisters appear as others heal. When a baby is born to a woman who has active genital herpes lesions, the infant is at high risk of contracting an often fatal infection, so these infants are often delivered by cesarian section. Primary cases of genital herpes can be treated by acyclovir, a drug approved in ointment form in 1982 and in oral form in 1984. It is also proving useful against recurrent attacks.
The virus can also invade the central nervous system, especially in people who are weakened by other diseases, such as cancer, causing a severe encephalitis. Early treatment of herpetic encephalitis with the drug acyclovir can prevent death and brain damage in many instances.
Herpes Zoster
Known as shingles, this is a one-time recurrence of the symptoms of chicken pox, usually during adulthood. It is caused by the chicken pox virus attacking a sensory nerve. The skin over the nerve generally breaks out in blisters a few days after the onset of the disorder, which is accompanied by pain and frequent numbness or hypersensitivity along the course of the nerve, usually the trunk. The blisters are at first clear, but become cloudy within a few days and form crusts that dry up after five or ten days. The skin manifestation of herpes zoster is not serious, but the pain caused by the inflammation of the underlying nerve can be severe, lasting for weeks; recovery may be followed by persistence of neuralgia in the area of the involved nerve. High doses of acyclovir can significantly reduce the symptoms of herpes zoster. Normally, medication relieves pain, and the disease subsides spontaneously. More severe cases may be treated with such steroids as cortisone. In cases of persistent pain, the involved nerve may be either blocked by drugs or cut. In people with cancer being treated with drugs, herpes zoster infections can be fatal. Japanese scientists have developed a vaccine with which they have inoculated children being treated for leukemia. Their results indicate that the vaccine is safe and that it prevents severe herpes zoster infection in these patients. Herpetic infections of the eye, called dendritic keratitis, can cause scarring of the cornea. They are treatable with idoxuridine and vidarabine.

Chlamydia, genus of obligate intracellular bacteria with two species, Chlamydia trachomatis and C. psittaci, known to be pathogenic for humans. Infection with C. psittaci, which causes psittacosis, is relatively rare. C. trachomatis causes infection of the urogenital tract, known as lymphogranuloma venereum; in the early 1980s researchers determined it to be the most common of the venereal diseases in the U.S.
The effects of C. trachomatis infection are frequently masked by the similar but stronger symptoms (such as discharges and painful urination) of gonorrhea, which often accompanies it. Easily treated by antibiotics, it can be a serious infection if unchecked. It may cause severe pelvic inflammatory disease and extrauteral (ectopic) pregnancies in women and can even lead to sterility in both women and men. Children born to infected mothers may develop conjunctivitis and pneumonia. A strain of fly-borne C. trachomatis causes the very serious, sometimes blinding eye disease known as trachoma.

Genital Warts, Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), family of viruses (see VIRUS) that cause warts and have been implicated as possible causes of genital cancers and, more recently, cancers and other abnormal growths of the eye. More than 50 types of HPV have been differentiated; for example, type 2 causes warts on the hands, type 6 is associated with genital warts, and type 13 causes flat, wartlike lesions in the mouth. Types 16 and 18 are the ones possibly linked with cancers, but several others are associated with a rare skin disease that may also become cancerous. The viruses may be transmitted congenitally and sexually, as well as by other means of contact; vaccines to control them were under development in the 1980s.

Hepatitis, inflammation of the liver, usually due to acute viral infection, primarily of the liver, occurring in three or more forms. Lifelong immunity to the causative virus usually follows an attack, but since several distinct viruses cause the disease, immunity to one type does not confer immunity to the others.
Hepatitis A
    Previously known as infectious hepatitis, this disease is transmitted by contaminated food or other objects taken into the mouth, or it can be contracted by injection with improperly sterilized hypodermic needles. Outbreaks often occur in army camps and in institutions where small children are crowded together.
Hepatitis B
    Previously called serum hepatitis, this form has been recognized only since World War II. It is epidemic in parts of Asia and Africa. Hepatitis B is transmitted by injections transporting a virus-bearing serum, most often during blood transfusion and by contaminated needles and syringes. For a person who has been accidentally stuck by a needle contaminated with the virus, administration of gamma globulin containing antibodies to the virus greatly reduces the chance of developing the illness. The virus is also present in other body fluids and can be transmitted by sexual contact. In 1965 Baruch Blumberg, an American physician, identified a viral component called the Australia antigen that determines whether a sample of blood can transmit hepatitis B. All samples of blood intended for transfusion are now routinely tested for the antigen; this has greatly reduced post-transfusion hepatitis. In 1976 Blumberg received the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for this work.
    In 1977 an Italian physician, Mario Rizzetto, identified a virus—now called the delta hepatitis virus—that cannot replicate on its own and requires the presence of the hepatitis B virus to be transmitted. The delta virus occurs worldwide and has caused major epidemics; this form of the disease, sometimes called hepatitis D, can also become chronic.
“Non-A, Non-B” Hepatitis
    Two more types of hepatitis have also been identified. Hepatitis C, transmitted in blood or body fluids and caused by a virus which has now been cloned, is the most common cause of post-transfusion hepatitis. Hepatitis E is transmitted in contaminated drinking water and can cause an epidemic form of non-A, non-B hepatitis.
Symptoms and Treatment
    Symptoms of all forms begin with fever, usually followed by weakness, loss of appetite, digestive upsets, and muscle pains. The upper abdomen may be painful and tender. Jaundice appears gradually, reaching maximum intensity at two weeks.
    Convalescence may take up to six months. In about 5 percent of victims the disease goes on to a chronic form. The fatality rate from all types of hepatitis is about 1 percent but may be higher for hepatitis B.
    An effective vaccine that prevents hepatitis B became generally available in 1982, but its use has remained limited because of its cost. A genetically engineered vaccine became available in 1986; it is recommended especially for health care workers and others who may be exposed to blood that may contain the virus. Recombinant alpha interferon, a naturally occurring antiviral substance now marketed as a genetically engineered drug, has been effective in treating many patients with chronic hepatitis C and some patients with chronic hepatitis B. No treatment is available for acute viral hepatitis.

Contributed by:
Mark Abramowicz

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), disease that renders the body's immune system unable to resist invasion by several microorganisms that cause serious infections. It is usually characterized by severe weight loss and fatigue, and frequently by neurological complications due to damage of cells of the brain. There is also a high incidence of certain cancers, especially Kaposi's sarcoma, which shows up as purple lesions on the skin, and tumors known as B-cell lymphomas.
AIDS is transmitted by blood, through intimate sexual contact, from infected mothers to their babies in the uterus, and perhaps through infected mother's milk. Before a reliable test for screening blood was developed, a major route of transmission was through receiving transfusions of contaminated blood. A major means of transmission and spread of the virus is through the use of blood-contaminated needles by intravenous drug abusers. Casual contact in general is not a risk factor for infection, and blood donors are definitely not at risk of catching the disease. The virus usually remains dormant for some time in infected T cells, and it may take up to 10 years for symptoms to develop.
    Several strains of the AIDS virus have been isolated, and it appears to be continually changing in genetic makeup and, thus, its envelope, against which a person's immune system can make antibodies. This makes development of a vaccine that is able to raise protective antibodies to all virus strains a very difficult task. Nevertheless, dramatic progress has been made in a very short time in identifying the molecular makeup of the AIDS virus, its modes of transmission, and the mechanisms by which it produces disease.
    Much research centers on solving the problems of treating people who already have AIDS and those who have been infected with the virus but have not yet developed the syndrome. The first chemical shown to be partially effective in reducing clinical symptoms and controlling viral replication, zidovudine, formerly called azidothymidine (AZT), was developed in 1986-87. The fatality rate from AIDS indicates that few, if any, individuals with AIDS are likely to survive in the long run, until some adequate treatment is developed.
    AIDS raises many legal, ethical, and civil rights issues. Among these are mandatory testing of all citizens or of particular populations (for example, marriage license applicants); discrimination in housing, employment, and medical treatment; and confidentiality versus notification of sex partners.
    The first case of AIDS was identified in New York in 1979. The cause of the disease, a retrovirus now called Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), was identified in 1983-84 by scientists working at the National Cancer Institute in the United States and the Pasteur Institute in France. These workers also developed tests for AIDS, enabling researchers to follow the transmission of the virus and to study the origin and mechanism of the disease. Close relatives of the AIDS virus infect some African monkeys. This fact and the high incidence of infection of people in central Africa has led to the opinion that the AIDS virus originated there. In 1990, the World Health Organization announced that 203,599 cases of AIDS were reported worldwide by the end of 1989, and estimated the actual number of cases to be 600,000.

Contributed by:
Robert C. Gallo

Avoiding STD's
Now getting these STD's would be, obviously, unpleasant. So let's talk about how not to get them. There are some pretty simple ways to do this. The one that people are most commonly relying on nowadays is condoms. Really using condoms if you're having sex is the only way to protect yourself. I'll include direction on how to use a condom as soon as I have something to scan in. Now remember that the use of condoms is very simple but you have ot pay attention to what you're doing. Remeber to use lube; ONLY water based, petroleum lubrecants will puncture the latex. Put lube on the inside as well as the out side, it cuts down on friction (something you don't want is heat causing weaknesses in the latex). Make sure to keep the condom rolled all the way down during use, you don't want anything leaking in or out of it. You need to make sure to be careful when you are withdrawing from your partener to make sure to hold the condom at the base in order to ensure that it doesn't slip off inside of them. Its just polite and it'll protect your partener just in case you have anything that they don't want. This is especially important to remeber if you or your partener are HIV positive. If you are both HIV positive using condoms properly will help you keep from cross infecting eachother. One set of viruses is probably enough for you as it is.

Now there are a lot of people yelling about using condoms, and I'm one of them. I always practice safer sex and I will always pratice safer sex. But the only true way to have a no risk life, sexually speaking, is through abstenance. I know it sounds like an old story but its true. I mean sure its a bit of circular logic but yah, you can't get an STD if you don't have sex. So make you choices wisely and don't go rushing into anything that you're not sure of or ready for.

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