Protecting Against STIs and AIDS Flashcards
What is an STI?
An STI is an infection that is transmitted by unprotected sexual behavior
STI agents can enter the body by:
o Breaks in the skin
o Mucous membranes
o Transfer of blood
o Parents to child
STIs Risk Factors
• Multiple sexual partners • False sense of security • Absence of signs and symptoms • Untreated conditions • Impaired judgment • Lack of immunity • Body piercing (genitals) • Value judgments—STIs have been associated with sinfulness, dirtiness, condemnation, shame, guilt, and disgust. • Denial
Common STIs
- Trichomoniasis
- Bacterial Vaginosis
- Chlamydial/Gonorrhea
- Syphilis
- Genital Herpes
- Human Papillomavirus and Anogenital Warts
- HIV/AIDS
Trichomoniasis
- Symptoms occur primarily in women and include vaginal itching and a cheesy, odorous discharge from the vagina
- Only about 30% of people with trichomoniasis have symptoms including itching, burning, or sore genitals. You might also see a smelly, clear, white, yellowish, or greenish discharge
- Men also can carry the organisms in the urethra of the penis and under the penile foreskin.
Bacterial Vaginosis
- Overgrowth of certain types of bacteria.
- Can be sexually transmissible.
- Symptoms include vaginal discharge, may have “fishy” smell, or may show no symptoms.
- Treatable
Chlamydia
• The lungs are occasionally infected.
• This infection often occurs in conjunction
with gonorrhea.
• Symptoms generally appear within 7 to 21 days after infection and include :Painful urination in both men and women. A whitish discharge from the penis or vagina
• Chlamydia can be treated with antibiotics.
• There is no immunity to chlamydia, which means reinfection may occur many times.
Gonorrhea:
• A person can be infected in the genitals, anus, mouth, or eyes
• Can be transmitted by oral or anal sex
• Can be passed to newborns as they move through the vagina
• Can be asymptomatic
• Most men with gonorrhea get symptoms, but only about 20% of women do
• When symptoms do appear, they include: Painful urination in both men and women. A yellowish discharge from the penis or vagina
• First symptoms appear 7 to 10 days
after exposure.
• Can be treated with antibiotics
Syphilis
• Transmitted through genital, oral, and anal contact and through blood.
o First sign is a painless ulcer (chancre), which occurs between the first week and the third month after infection.
• Secondary stage (if untreated) appears in about 6 months. Marked by Skin rash. Loss of hair. Growths on moist areas of the body
• If left untreated, infection enters the
latent stage.
• There are years of no obvious symptoms, during which the organisms invade
body organs.
• Infection can seriously damage vital organs.
• Treatment at any stage is with antibiotics.
Genital Herpes
- Herpes is easy to catch. All it takes is skin-to-skin contact, including areas that a condom doesn’t cover
- Can infect newborn babies: Two-thirds of untreated babies die.
- Often asymptomatic: 90% of people infected with HSV-2 do not know it.
- Symptoms are blisters and painful sores, and sometimes fever and abdominal pain
- Virus remains in the body and occasionally flares up in response to stress.
- There is no cure, but medication can minimize symptoms.
- Herpes is highly contagious when a sore is present
Genital Warts
- Most common STI. Nearly every sexually active person will have HPV at some point
- More than 40 types can be spread sexually
- You can get them through vaginal, anal, or oral sex. You can get them by skin-to-skin contact, too
- Most types of HPV have no symptoms and cause no harm, and your body gets rid of them on its own
- But some of them cause warts
- Others infect the mouth and throat
- Still others can cause cancer of the cervix, penis, oral cavity
Human Papillomavirus (HPV)
• HPV can cause warts, or Condylomata acuminata,
• HPV types can cause cancer of the cervix
• Can be removed with a liquid containing podophyllin or by freezing the wart with
liquid nitrogen.
• Generally diagnosed by visual examination
• 20-30% regress on their own, but recurrence is common
• Treatment reduces but does not eliminate infectiousness, includes local and pharmacologic therapies
For oral sex on the penis:
o Cover the penis with a non-lubricated latex condom.
o Use plastic (polyurethane) condoms if you or your partner is allergic to latex
For oral sex on the vagina or anus:
o Use a dental dam.
Cut open a condom to make a square, and put it between the mouth and the partner’s vagina or anus
What can I do?
o Abstain o Condom o Mutual monogamy o Vaccination o Nb of partners
Oral sex and sexual behavior involving digital-vaginal or digital-anal contact can result In infections such as
- HPV
- Bacterial vaginosis
- Trichomoniasis
Are you at Risk?
- Engaging in unprotected sex?
- Sexual partners participate in high-risk activities (such as anal sex)
- Intravenous drug users who share needles
- Infants born to parent with HIV who don’t receive HIV therapy during pregnancy
HIV
• Initial infection with HIV can produce no symptoms.
• 2 weeks after contracting the virus, most people, experience flu-like symptoms.
• Respiratory/ Gastrointestinal
• Severe morbidity and death
• HIV infection causes disease by
destroying immune system cells leaving patient vulnerable to bacterial, viral, and fungal infections.
• HIV transmitted via blood, semen, and vaginal fluids of infected individuals
AIDS:
- HIV is a retrovirus, which means that, once it gains entry to a cell, it incorporates itself into the host cell’s DNA.
- First symptoms are often flu-like and experienced within a few weeks of exposure; generally, the person recovers from these symptoms.
- An HIV-infected person may not manifest symptoms of AIDS for 15 to 20 years but can still spread the infection.
- Most tests for HIV infection detect antibodies to HIV-positive result (“seropositive”) indicates that a person has been exposed to sufficient quantities of HIV to trigger an immune response.
- HIV infections are lifelong.
- To date there is no cure for AIDS.
- Treatments attempt to slow the replication of the virus.
- Medications help treat the symptoms.
Reducing the Risk of HIV
- Having sex only in a monogamous, long-term relationship.
- Do not use drugs, and if you do, use clean needles and do not share needles.
- Use condoms when having sex.
Testing for HIV
- Testing begins with a counseling session.
- Actual testing involves taking a small amount of blood from the arm, which is tested in a special laboratory.
- Regardless of the test results, another counseling session is necessary.
- HIV testing consists of two types – anonymous and confidential.
Preventing STDs Individuals must
o Get immediate treatment for an STD
o Take responsibility not to infect others
o Practice safer sex to reduce the risk of infection
• Barriers to safer sex
o Denying that there is a risk
o Believing that the campus community is insulated from STDs
o Feeling guilty
o Succumbing to social and peer pressure to be sexual
• Practicing Safer Sex
Practice abstinence.
Know your partner’s sexual history, including all high-risk activities.
Use a male or female condom and spermicides.
