Archived: Feb 08, 2006

> Features

Prevent unanticipated Valentine’s Day surprises

National Condom Week celebrates safe sex

By Maureen Mayrand

Passion and prevention is the message for this amorous month, as Feb. 13 kicks off the first annual National Condom Week.

For nearly a decade, Valentine’s Day has been recognized by the American Social Health Association (ASHA) as National Condom Day. Now, the day once dedicated to condom education and use has expanded into a full week.

Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to emphasize that loving someone involves protecting the sexual health of both partners, even though it is a sensitive and often embarrassing subject, said Leslie Cunningham, ASHA marketing and communications specialist.

Due to the success of National Condom Day, the nonprofit organization has stretched the day into a week, said Cunningham, noting that with 18 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases arising annually, education about preventing the epidemic is important.

Cunningham said that during National Condom Week, participating institutions celebrate by handing out free condoms.

“We try to provide online tools for people to download, and universities and other organizations come up with their own themes,” Cunningham said. “All types of people are doing all types of things, and that’s great.”

Although the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee will not officially be participating in National Condom Week, various campus organizations are sponsoring a Relationships Fair in the Union Concourse on Feb. 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The fair will focus on learning about healthy relationships, said Peggy Brown, administrative program manager for Norris Health Center.

Participating organizations including the LGBT Resource Center, the Career Development Center, Student Association and the Women’s Resource Center will offer free ice cream sundaes and information about different types of relationships.

“Education about utilizing (condoms) is a little more important to us than saying, you know, ‘Here, free condoms,’ ” Brown said.

Although condoms will not be given away for free, Durex Condoms are always available at Norris — five condoms for $1.

Director of Norris Health Center Julia Bonner said that Norris also administers free testing for gonorrhea and chlamydia. Last year, 1,648 tests were done for gonorrhea and 1,648 for chlamydia.

“We also send out tests for screening syphilis, HIV and HPV (human papilloma virus),” she said.

According to a fall 2005 National College Health Assessment survey of which 765 UWM students responded, 3.3 percent said that they had been diagnosed with chlamydia and 0.8 percent with gonorrhea. Additionally, 0.4 percent responded that they had been diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease, which is one of the possible outcomes of any unrecognized or untreated STD, Bonner said.

> Comments

STD statistics

More than half of all people will have an STD at some point in their lifetime.
The estimated total number of people living in the U.S. with a viral STD is over 65 million. Every year, there are at least 15 million new cases of STDs, some of which are curable.
Less than half of adults ages 18 to 44 have ever been tested for an STD other than HIV/AIDS.
Each year, one in four teens contracts an STD.
One in two sexually active persons will contract an STD by age 25.
About half of all new STDs in 2000 occurred among youth ages 15 to 24.
Of the STDs that are diagnosed, only some (gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, hepatitis A and B) are required to be reported to state health departments and the CDC.
One out of 20 people in the United States will get infected with hepatitis B (HBV) some time during their lives. Hepatitis B is 100 times more infectious than HIV.
Approximately half of HBV infections are transmitted sexually. HBV is linked to chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Hepatitis A and hepatitis B are the only two vaccine-preventable STDs.
Each year, there are almost 3 million new cases of chlamydia, many of which are in adolescents and young adults. The CDC recommends that sexually active females 25 and under should be screened at least once a year for chlamydia, even if no symptoms are present.
About two-thirds of young females believe doctors routinely screen teens for chlamydia. However, in 2003 only 30% of women 25 and under with commercial health care plans and 45% in Medicaid plans were screened for chlamydia.
At least 15 percent of all American women who are infertile can attribute it to tubal damage caused by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), the result of an untreated STD. Consistent condom use reduces the risk of recurrent PID and related complications: significantly, women who reported regular use of condoms in one study were 60 percent less likely to become infertile.

Source: American Social Health Association, www.ashastd.org