110 million STDs in US in 2008. A yawner for the public it seems.

The CDC has reported that there were a mind boggling 110 million cases of venereal disease in the US in 2008. This costs a chunk of change and immeasurable personal consequences.  Will this info impact sexual behavior?  I doubt it.

According to new data released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 19.7 million new venereal infections in the United States in 2008, bringing the total number of existing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the U.S. at that time to 110,197,000.

The 19.7 million new STIs in 2008 vastly outpaced the new jobs and college graduates created in the United States that year or any other year on record, according to government data. The competition was not close.

The STI study referenced by the CDC estimated that 50 percent of the new infections in 2008 occurred among people in the 15-to-24 age bracket. In fact, of the 19,738,800 total new STIs in the United States in 2008, 9,782,650 were among Americans in the 15-to-24 age bracket.

“CDC’s new estimates show that there are about 20 million new infections in the United States each year, costing the American healthcare system nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs alone,” said a CDC fact sheet.

...The most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States in 2008 was human papillomavirus (HPV), which caused 14,100,000 estimated infections that year.

After HPV, in order of magnitude, according to the study, new STIs in the U.S. in 2008 included 2,860,000 new Chlamydia infections; 1,090,000 new Trichomoniasis infections; 820,000 new Gonorrhea infections; 776,000 new Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 (HSV-2) infections; 55,400 new syphilis infections; 41,400 new HIV infections; and 19,000 new Hepatitis B infections.

The total of 110,197,000 existing STIs in the United States in 2008 included 79,100,000 HPV infections, 24,100,000 HSV-2 infections; 3,710,000 Trichomoniasis infections; 1,579,000 Chlamydia infections; 908,000 HIV infections; 422,000 Hepatitis B infections; 270,000 Gonorrhea infections; and 117,000 Syphilis infections.

Looming social crises - 40 percent of kids born out of wedlock and record low birth rates.

A recent story noted a CDC report showing record low birth rates and extremely high out of wedlock birth percentages.

The birth rate in the United States hit an all-time low in 2011, according to a report released this month by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The 2011 preliminary number of U.S. births was 3,953,593, 1 percent less (or 45,793 fewer) births than in 2010; the general fertility rate (63.3 per 1,000 women age 15-44 years) declined to the lowest rate ever reported for the United States,” said the report.

More than 40 percent of all babies born in the country last year, the report said, were born to unmarried women....

The percentage of American-born babies who were delivered by unmarried women actually declined slightly from 40.8 percent in 2010 to 40.7 percent in 2011.

In 2011, 1,606,087 babies were born to unmarried women and 2,347,506 were born to married women.

Although the percentage of babies born to unmarried women was highest among teens, the percentage of babies delivered by unmarried women of older ages increased from 2010 to 2011.

In 2010, 33.9 percent of the babies delivered by women 25-29 were delivered by unmarried women, and in 2011 that increased to 34.4 percent. In 2010, 21.1 percent of babies delivered by women 30-34 were delivered by unmarried women, and in 2011 that increased to 21.6 percent. In 2010, 19.6 percent of babies delivered by women 35-39 were delivered by unmarried mothers and in 2011 that increased to 21.1 percent. In 2010, 21.7 percent of babies delivered by women 40 and over were delivered by unmarried mothers and in 2011 that increased to 22.4 percent.

For many, it's no big deal.  But a closer look reveals it is a big deal.

Declining birth rates means a smaller population which will impact economic growth and the ability of government to sustain it's current expenditures.  This will impact social programs and everything else government does.  It also will also increase pressure for higher taxes.

Higher out of wedlock birth rates means a significant, negative impact on character formation in the next generation.  Lack of fathers means kids are more likely to engage in criminal activity, do poorly in school, and a host of social of other social pathologies.

I compare it to the effect termites have on a house.  It destroys the foundation out sight, until one day the house collapses.  Same with the breakdown of marriage and child rearing.  If we do nothing, society will break down and collapses.

Same sex "marriage" is relevant to this discussion. Redefining marriage means mothers and fathers are no longer important.  Fathers become superfluous.  The state, if a new, genderless definition is adopted, will no longer be in a position of encouraging the involvement of fathers in children's lives because this would be discriminatory against same sex, female households. 

STD Chlamydia hits record high; spread through nonintercourse sexual activity which means condoms won't prevent it.

It was recently reported that chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease, has reached record highs. It was estimated that there were 1.1 million cases in 2007. Chlamydia can lead to infertility among women.

According to an AP story

Sexually transmitted diseases - for years on the decline - are on the rise, with reported chlamydia cases setting a record, government health officials said yesterday.

The increase in chlamydia, a sometimes symptomless infection that can lead to infertility in women, is likely because of better screening, experts said. In 2007, there were 1.1 million cases, the most ever reported, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thousands of women become infertile each year because of untreated chlamydia and gonorrhea infections, said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., director of CDC's Division of STD Prevention.

Syphilis cases, which number only in the thousands, also rose modestly, while the number of gonorrhea cases remained roughly the same. Syphilis can kill, if left untreated, but chlamydia and gonorrhea are not life-threatening.

Chlamydia can infect men as well as women, but rates are nearly three times higher for women. That's at least partly due to 1993 federal recommendations that emphasize testing for sexually active women age 25 and under. That emphasized screening in recent years is no doubt driving the record numbers, said Dr. Jonathan Zenilman, a professor of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "The issue with chlamydia is the more [you] test, the more you'll find," Zenilman said.

The latest numbers translate to a rate of 370 cases per 100,000 people in 2007, up 7.5 percent from 2006.

The reported cases are just part of the picture. Health officials believe as many as 2.8 million Americans may have chlamydia. Many men and women have no symptoms from it. Some women experience pain in their lower abdomen or notice a burning sensation or a pus-like discharge when they urinate. Some men may also feel a burning during urination or have a discharge.

Gonorrhea cases appear to have plateaued and are currently at about 356,000 cases. Syphilis was on the verge of being eliminated in the United States about 10 years ago, but lately has been inching up. More than 11,000 new cases of the most contagious form of the disease were reported in 2007.

Syphilis is relatively rare but has become a growing threat, particularly for gay and bisexual men, who accounted for about 65 percent of the 2007 cases.

What's interesting about chlamydia is it can be spread through non-intercourse sexual activity. This of course means condoms aren't the answer from a prevention standpoint and are dangerous because they provide people with a false sense of security.

Of course, I'm sure condom advocates are already saying abstinence won't work we need more condoms. This view is an excellent example of ideology overriding reality. The problem is reality always wins.

CDC notes that teen pregnancies and out of wedlock birth rates are up in US and Minnesota

The CDC reported today that in Minnesota, the percent of teen births increased from 6.8% in 2005 to 7.0% in 2006 and the out of wedlock birth rate increased from 29.8% in 2005 to 31.7% in 2006. Nationally, the teen pregnancy rate increased from 10.2% to 10.4% and out of wedlock birth rates increased from 36.9% to 38.5% during the same time periods.

I believe the rise in teen pregnancy and out of wedlock birth rates is attributable to the ‘anything goes approach’ to sex we see the teen culture. And now it’s being pushed in schools through unhealthy comprehensive sex education programs which only makes matters worse.

The rise in out of wedlock birth rates is a very troubling development. It’s at all time highs and puts at risk the well-being of all concerned, especially children. Kids raised without the benefit of two parents are 5 to 6 times more likely to be raised in poverty, get in trouble with the law, have problems in school and personal problems.

As I said in a news release, "The sexual revolution of the sixties and its progeny today, as seen in these CDC figures, has been a disaster. It’s left in its wake a trail of broken hearts, disease, sickness, and even death. Our kids and society deserve better."

Chlamydia cases up, must be due to abstinence education, condom advocates will no doubt say

"More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year, the most ever for a sexually transmitted disease, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said." was the first line from a news story earlier this week in the Seattle Times.

I can already hear what the condom and contraceptive proponents will say, "It's due to abstinence education! Kids need more condoms!"

That may sound over the top but I doubt it. Every time there's more bad news about teen pregnancy and STDs, the comprehensive sex ed crowd says it's due to abstinence education. It shows how desperate they're getting and how they are utterly driven by ideology.

I recollect that chlamydia is also spread through non-intercourse sexual activity which only reaffirms "abstinence until marriage" as the right sex education message for teenagers.