What Are Super STIs?

Apr 03, 2018 Condoms and Sexual Health

Super STIs are sexually transmitted diseases that are impossible to treat. Over the past century, the introduction of antibiotics meant that bacterial STIs were as treatable as any other infection.  Treatments have been so effective that diseases like the ‘clap’ (Gonorrhea) belonged in the past with the plague and other unsavoury ailments. Our overuse of antibiotics is resulting in a resurgence of super strength STIs which is a concern for all of us. Our complacency towards preventing STIs and over-enthusiastic doctors prescribing antibiotics is making the battle against STIs harder.  The FPA (Sexual Health Charity) released statistics denoting a 4% decrease in STIs in 2017. They believe the results to be inaccurate due to fewer people being tested for chlamydia. Therefore the reduction in reported cases is not as good as it sounds. We associate STIs with young people which is predominantly true but older people have increasingly affected as long-term relationships break up. 2018 really isn’t a good time to be promiscuous or have unprotected sex because of three main reasons.  First, the first strain of antibiotic-resistant Gonorrhoea has been reported. Secondly, budgets cuts are reducing the number of treatment centres available so testing is more difficult.  And finally, people just don’t seem to care about the risks or have forgotten how life-changing STIs actually are.

Why STIs Are Bad News

STIs or sexually transmitted infections are a sanitised version of STDs or VD.  Apparently changing the concept of sexually transmitted diseases hurts fewer people’s feelings.  Let’s face it when you think of venereal disease you think of dirty sailors with puss seeping out of their infected penis.  Or fishy smelling wenches who give themselves freely to anyone with the right tender. The bottom line is that VD is shameful, embarrassing and can still be caught by ordinary respectful people. Soldiers with syphilis ensured that the diseases spread throughout Europe and the Old World.  Most were more likely to die from mercury poisoning (which was the only treatment at the time) than in battle.  It would seem that amazing explorers like Captain Cooke and Marco Polo saw to it that their crew shared the disease with natives. Untreated syphilis leads to madness and blindness due to its effects on the nervous system. Affectionately known as the clap because treatment for gonorrhoea used to involve clapping the penis between two pieces of wood. Symptoms of both diseases involve puss and rashes although for some it is symptomless. Chlamydia is a surreptitious STI which scars your fallopian tubes rendering you infertile without any symptoms. All of these STIs are bacterial infections.

This Is Where It Gets Worse

The introduction of penicillin in the twentieth century should have seen the demise of STIs but it didn’t.  Gonorrhoea, syphilis and chlamydia are bacterial infections that respond well to antibiotics. In a perfect world, the number of sexually transmitted diseases should be reducing each year but they are not.  Maybe the change in the name makes STIs less embarrassing. Our love affair with antibiotics and need to take pills for every ill has made some diseases difficult to treat.  This is a chronic problem with all bacterial infections, not just STIs. Our belief that conditions such as Gonorrhea and Syphilis are easy to treat is putting our health at risk. Our instant gratification lives are putting us at risk of sexually transmitted diseases more than ever.  We protect our precious phones from infections but not our own bodies. There are no campaigns to raise awareness and we are all spreading infections without a second thought.  The last time we worried about sexually transmitted diseases was in the 80’s when AIDs and HIV were prominent.

Promiscuity Spreads Diseases

Abstinence is the only guarantee against STIs. We are not Vestal virgins and celibacy is not really a natural way to live so we have to have safe sex.  First of all, avoid the local bike - they may be a good ride but will leave you saddle sore. If you have to go for a ride make sure you wear a helmet for extra protection.  Hopefully, you realise that the bike is a metaphor for people who like to sleep around. Catching one STI often leads to another because it compromises your immune system making others easier to catch.  Just because they have a more wholesome image it doesn’t mean that they are less unpleasant. Relying on antibiotics to rectify your mistakes is not a good health plan.  Young people think of the future and the effect on your fertility older people remember that STIs like to infect people of all ages. STI checks and using protection at the beginning of a relationship saves a lot of bother.  It is not very romantic but neither is discharge, itchiness, rashes and infertility. Prevention is better than cure particularly in the case of viruses such as Herpes or HIV because there is no cure.