STD rates highest among college students
When a person engages in unprotected sex, especially with multiple partners, they are taking a dangerous risk, and college students are at an especially high danger.
“It won’t happen to me,” is one of the biggest misconceptions people have about sexually transmitted diseases, Lapriel Clark, a nurse practitioner at the Bear River Health Department, said.
College-age students are the most common group for contracting or transmitting an STD, she said, accounting for 67 percent of Bear River Health Department clients.
In 2004, 88 percent of people with STDs are between the ages of 20 and 29, with 32 percent being 18 or 19, Clark said.
Jana Carling, the prevention specialist at the Student Health and Wellness Center, said, “People who are 30 and younger are more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease.
Usually college age students are the ones who contract the diseases.”
There are many harmful effects to sexually transmitted disease’s that can greatly influence the health and life of a student.
“The tricky thing with STDs is that there are many STDs can have and not show symptoms or see the symptoms even if they’re showing,” Carling said.
“Due to location of where [symptoms are] at or the kinds of symptoms that they are, you just may not recognize that they’re symptoms,” Carling said.
Bear River District has 15 reported infections of HIV and 41 cases of AIDS in the past year, Clark said.
The Bear River Health Department has also reported a rate of 66.2 chlamydia infections per thousand, as compared to Salt Lake with 228.9 per 1,000, or the state average of 165.4 per 1,000.
“It’s much more common for women to be infected by men then for men to be infected by women,” Carling said.
STDs can cause sterility in both men and women, Carling said. Joints can be damaged, as well as the heart, brain and spinal cord, which can have extreme effects on a person, Carling said. STDs can sometimes even lead to death, Carling said.
Birth defects and miscarriages can also be caused by STDs, Carling said.
Abstinence is the only guarantee to prevent STDs, Carling said, and a fully monogamous relationship can also prevent the problem, Carling said.
Using a condom when engaging in sexual intercourse can be a good method of prevention, but isn’t 100 percent effective, Carling said, and must be used properly.
“If you are sexually active with more than one partner, then you should be getting yourself checked [for STDs],” Carling said.
If people are sexually active, getting tested twice a year is the best way to know whether an STD has been contracted, she said.
The Student Health and Wellness Center offers free consulting and low costs to students for STD tests, Terri Jones, a nurse at the Health Center, said. Tests are available for HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, human papillomavirus (HPV) and herpes, Jones said.
“Everything that’s done here is confidential,” Jones said.
Students can also talk to a nurse on the phone if they’d rather not go into the center, Jones said.
According to a study conducted in 2000, the most common STD was human papillomavirus, infecting 5.5 million people, the second most common is chlamydia, infecting 3 million people, she said.
Any exchange in bodily fluids between partners increases the risk of contracting and transmitting STDs, Carling said.
“The best way [besides abstinence] to prevent STDs is to limit the number of partners,” Lapriel Clark, a nurse practitioner at the Bear River Health Department, said.
“Alcohol is a really big player in the game,” Clark said.
Substance abuse and partying can put students in a situation to contract an STD because of impaired judgment, Clark said.
People commonly focus and worry about things that will not give people STDs such as toilet seats, instead of focusing on and using caution during sexual situations, Clark said.
“A condom is not 100 percent effective against STDs, you can still get several different kinds of STDs even with using a condom,” Carling said.
-amysueh@cc.usu.edu