STDs RISING AT ALARMING RATE IN CAPE COUNTY

"Anytime you have sex with someone, you are having sex with everyone that person has had sex with before."

Think about it. These powerful words by Jane Wernsman of the Cape Girardeau County Health Department should give pause to sexually active people. Are you taking precautions? Are you playing it safe? Or will the fling you have today leave you with lasting health problems?

Despite the dangers of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, too many people continue to practice unsafe sex. County health departments track sexually transmitted diseases, and the numbers of those affected in Cape Girardeau County are going up.

The disease of particular concern in Missouri is chlamydia, which surpassed the number of gonorrhea cases in 1995. In Cape Girardeau, 210 cases of chlamydia were reported to the Department of Health in 1998. This county had one of the highest rates in Southeast Missouri and was well above the state average.

Chlamydial infection is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the U.S. today. It is a major cause of pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy and chronic pelvic pain. It has been on the increase in Cape Girardeau County since 1994.

But it's not the only sexually transmitted disease out there. Men and women in Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri have been afflicted with AIDS, HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis and other dangerous diseases. These are serious diseases with long-lasting health implications. For some of these sexually transmitted diseases, there is no cure, only treatment. And in the case of AIDS, the health risks could be deadly.

Are you already infected? You can find out confidentially at the county health department's sexually transmitted disease clinic from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Tuesday. The county offers tests and treatment medications without charge to eligible clients.

There's only one 100 percent guarantee on how to avoid a sexually transmitted disease: abstinence. After that, it's important to maintain monogamous relationships while still taking precautions.

The risks are simply too high to practice unsafe sex in today's climate of sexually transmitted diseases.