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| Signs of sexually-transmitted diseases |
Sometimes, the way alternative medicine
hawkers trivialise issues relating to sexually-transmitted
infections/diseases is astounding. For one, they dwell more on obscene
description of sexuality; while they also call STIs the diseases of the
socially active persons.
Well, whether this latter aspect is true
or not, the undeniable fact is that STDs are dangerous infections that
can wreak systematic havoc on the body, internally and externally; and,
in extreme cases, they can result in agonising death.
Continue reading after the cut....
Epidemiologists say there are more than
20 STDs, including crabs, scabies, genital warts, syphilis, AIDS,
Chlamydia, Herpes, among others.
Researchers say every year, millions of
STDs are passed from person to person, primarily through sexual contact,
though some infections are also transmitted non-sexually.
They note that because the infections
are sexually-transmitted, people don’t like to talk about them and
therefore leave them untreated.
“Sometimes, the infections will go away;
but usually, an untreated STD will return and the infected person will
suffer grave consequences as a result,” epidemiologist, Mr. Segilola
Araoye, warns.
Doctors also warn that STDs are dangerous for a pregnant woman and her unborn baby.
Family physician, Dr. Damilare Okikiolu,
notes that a pregnant woman with an STD can infect her baby before,
during, or after delivery.
“She may also go into early labour or suffer early rupture of the membranes surrounding the baby in the uterus.”
Worse still, doctors say, the
complications of STIs in pregnant women can result in cervical cancer
and other cancers for the mother. As for the unborn baby, he may suffer
chronic hepatitis, neonatal sepsis (infection in the blood), damage to
the brain, blindness, deafness, acute hepatitis, meningitis, and chronic
liver disease.
Okikiolu laments that some of the
effects of birth-related sexually-transmitted diseases may not be
detected for months or sometimes, even years.
Physicians warn that there are no
vaccines for the prevention of some of these STDs and that even after a
patient must have been treated for any of them, he or she could still
get a new infection if they don’t adhere to strict sexual health
practices.
Okikiolu advises sexually active people
who have more than one partner or those who engage in risky sexual
behaviours to regularly screen for STIs.
While we may not be able to mention all the STDs in the books, a brief examination of some of them would do. So, here we go…
Chlamydia
Okikiolu says typically, most people who
have Chlamydia don’t know they do because the bacterial infection often
has no symptoms, though it’s one of the most reported STDs.
He warns, “Chlamydia is easy to cure,
but if left untreated, it can affect a woman’s ability to conceive; just
as it can affect the genitals, rectum, eyes and eyelids.
“Indeed, about 10-15 per cent of women
with Chlamydia will develop pelvic inflammatory disease, which affects
the upper genital tract. This may cause permanent damage to the
fallopian tubes, uterus, and surrounding tissues, and can lead to
infertility. It may also lead to ectopic pregnancy. In men, Chlamydia
infection can spread to the testes, and can result in sterility,” the
doctor warns.
The signs and symptoms of Chlamydia,
Okikiolu says, usually include painful urination, lower abdominal pain,
vaginal discharge in women, discharge from the penis in men, pain during
sexual intercourse in women, and testicular pain in men.”
He warns that any sexually frivolous
person can get Chlamydia, “but female teens are more likely to be
infected because of immature cervix.”
Trichomoniasis
This STI, also called Trich, presents no
symptom, physicians say; and is one of the most common causes of
vaginitis — an irritation of the vulva or vagina. It takes between three
and 28 days for symptoms to appear, if ever they do. Consequently,
victims — especially men — don’t know they have it until they start
having discharge from the urethra, or when they feel the urge to urinate
frequently — often with pain and burning.
Okikiolu notes that when women have
Trich symptoms, they may have frothy, often unpleasant-smelling vaginal
discharge, blood spotting in the discharge, itching in and around the
vagina, and swelling in the groin.
Syphilis
This STD is one of the most versatile,
as it presents in four stages —primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary —
when left untreated.
Okikiolu explains that, “The primary
stage classically presents with firm, painless, non-itchy skin
ulceration (chancre); secondary stage comes with a diffuse rash which
frequently involves the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. Latent
syphilis presents little or no symptoms, but by the time it graduates
to tertiary stage, you can have a soft, non-cancerous growth (gummas,
commonly found in the liver, brain, heart, skin, bone, testis, and other
tissues). These can lead to a variety of potential problems, including
neurological disorders or heart valve disease.”
Signs and symptoms of syphilis include a
firm, round, small, and painless sore on the genitals, anus, or mouth;
or a rash on the body, especially on the palms of the hands or the soles
of the feet, researchers say.
Crabs
This STD is also called pubic lice,
which physicians describe as “small parasites that feed on human blood
and usually found on the pubic hair.” They can also be found on other
parts of the body where a person has coarse hair, such as armpits,
eyelashes, and facial hair. Crabs rarely infest head hair, scientists
say.
“The most noticeable symptom of crabs is
itching in the pubic area, which usually starts about five days after
infection,” Okikiolu says.
Doctors warn that crabs are also
transmitted non-sexually when one sleeps in an infested bed or uses
infested towel, wears infested cloth or uses an infested toilet seat.
Herpes
While all the aforementioned STDs are
treatable, not so herpes. Doctors say “there is no cure for this
infection, though treatment can reduce symptoms and decrease the risk of
transmission to another person.”
Okikiolu says herpes presents no
symptoms or have very mild symptoms that go unnoticed or are mistaken
for another skin condition.
The Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention warns that when symptoms do occur, they typically appear as
one or more blisters on or around the genitals, rectum or mouth. “The
blisters break and leave painful sores that may take two to four weeks
to heal. The first time someone has an outbreak, they may also
experience flu-like symptoms such as fever, body aches and swollen
glands.”
As deadly as herpes is, scientists say,
the infection can remain in the body indefinitely; and if a person with
genital herpes touches his/her sores, he may transfer the infection to
another part of the body, including the eyes.
Again, physicians warn, “The genital
sores caused by herpes can bleed easily. When the sores come into
contact with the mouth, vagina, or rectum during sex, they increase the
risk of HIV transmission if either partner is HIV-infected.”
Genital HPV infection
Okikiolu says there are more than 40
types of Human Papilloma Virus that not only infect the male and female
genitals, but can also infect the mouth and throat. Also incurable, as
HPV lingers in the body, it can cause serious health problems such as
genital warts and certain cancers, physicians warn.
Experts say though in about 90 per cent
of the cases, HPV infections go away by themselves within two years,
sometimes, they may persist and cause a variety of serious health
problems such as genital warts, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis — a
rare condition in which warts grow in the throat; cervical cancer,
cancer of the vulva, vagina, penis, or anus; and a type of head/neck
cancer called oropharyngeal cancer (cancer in the back of throat,
including the base of the tongue and tonsils).
- Solaade Ayo-Aderele/Punch
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