Question

What are the measures one has to take to prevent contracting STDs ?

Answer 1

STD stands for sexually transmitted diseases, these are transmitted through sexual contact with an infected person, therefore to prevent these, there is a need to take certain precautions without disturbing the sexual act.

Complete Answer:
- The sexually transmitted diseases are also called venereal diseases which are spread through sexual contact with an infected person. Some of the STDs can be cured while some are incurable.
- To prevent from getting infected with STD, it is important to use certain contraceptives which also acts as a barrier such as latex condoms for males and female condoms also called femidoms for females.
- The risk of getting these infections is more if a person has multiple sexual partners, therefore as a precaution measure, it is important that sex with unknown or multiple partners is prevented.

Some of the STDs are gonorrhoea, syphilis, AIDS, ebola virus disease, candidiasis, genital warts, genital herpes, chlamydiasis, trichomoniasis and hepatitis -B. Among them AIDS, hepatitis – B and genital herpes are not curable while others are.

- Hepatitis – B and HIV can also be spread due to contact of the blood with an infected person, therefore it is important that during blood transfusion, the presence of such virus is checked and not given to any other person.
- Sometimes these viral STDs are also transmitted from mother to foetus through placenta if mother is infected during pregnancy. Drug abusers who share needles and injections are also at the risk of getting infected.
- If there is any case of doubt, then it is necessary to do a medical check up from a doctor to ensure early detection of the disease and getting early treatment as soon as possible.
- The incubation period of a disease is the period between the entry of a pathogen in the body to showing the first symptom and it varies in every STD. AIDS or HIV virus show the incubation period from a few months to 10 years.
- The incubation period for gonorrhoea is 2 to 14 days in males and 7 to 21 days in females and that in syphilis is 3 – 4 weeks or even a month.

Note: The early symptoms of STDs are itching, fluid discharge, swellings and slight pain in the genital region. If these symptoms are ignored then it could lead to complications later like pelvic inflammatory diseases, abortions, cancer of the reproductive tract, infertility, still births and ectopic pregnancies.