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Chart: Common Reproductive Tract Infections
- A concise description of 11 common reproductive tract infections, including bacterial
and viral sexually transmitted diseases, is given. Contraceptive considerations are
summarized. The infections are AIDS(HIV), bacterial vaginosis, candidiasis, chancroid,
chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, human papilloma, hepatitis B, syphilis and trichomoniasis.
Opinion: Ounce of Prevention Worth a Million Lives
- Recent advances in HIV treatment, including the use of new protease inhibitors, are
encouraging signs. Effective HIV prevention efforts, however, will continue to be needed
for many years to come.
Risk Assessments Seek To Improve Screening
- Syndromic management seeks to identify whether someone has a sexually transmitted
disease based only on a person's clinical signs and symptoms. A tool called "risk
assessment" seeks to improve the accuracy of syndromic screening by including an
evaluation of the person's behavior and other social circumstances.
Emergency Contraception As a Back-up Method
- To help condom users prevent an unplanned pregnancy, some health officials recommend
emergency contraception as a backup method of family planning. Oral contraceptives can be
given to women in advance as an emergency contraceptive option, if ever needed.
Experimental HIV Drugs May Improve Prevention
- As the AIDS epidemic nears the end of its second decade, promising technologies are
under development to prevent infection, including vaccines, drugs and microbicides. Public
health experts emphasize, however, that proven prevention efforts, including an emphasis
on condom use, must continue to be part of the overall strategy to curtail infections.
Serving Young Adults Requires Creativity
- Sexually active young adults are seldom well-informed about their contraceptive choices
or the risks they face in acquiring a sexually transmitted disease (STD). They are often
reluctant to go to clinics for services and may even be refused services or treated rudely
if they do. Inconvenient hours or location and unaffordable costs may also discourage them
from seeking help.
STDs, Pregnancies Affect Women's Health
- For women, sexual intercourse can lead to two major health consequences: pregnancy and
sexually transmitted disease. Many experts view family planning and STD services as two
essential components of reproductive health programs, not as separate services with
different goals.
Factors Influence Services
- Integrating family planning with services to prevent or treat sexually transmitted
diseases should be shaped by factors that influence women's access to services. These
factors are biological, economic, cultural and perceptual.
Reducing the HIV Risk From Mother to Infant
- Worldwide, between one-fourth and one-third of infants born to women infected with HIV
become infected themselves. Promoting HIV prevention among women is the primary means of
preventing HIV infections among infants. For those women who do become infected,
preventing pregnancy is a secondary way of reducing the spread of HIV to infants. For
HIV-infected women who become pregnant, transmission to infants can occur in utero,
during birth or through breastfeeding.
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