STIs increase in Mexico as syphilis

• April 25, 2024

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have increased in Mexico, according to the epidemiology bulletin of the Ministry of Health, which covers February 28 to March 6, 2010, particularly genital herpes, syphilis and the human papilloma virus (HPV).

Syphilis went from 42 weekly cases that were reported in 2009 to 46 in 2010. This means an accumulated this year of 286 infected people. Lack of prevention programs? Little or bad use of condoms to avoid infection among young people? Ignorance regarding issues of sex education in adolescents? The reasons are many but what worries the most is that the sexually transmitted infections They have grown in recent months.

Another example: the contagion of human papillomavirus (HPV) went from 3 thousand 555 cases in 2009, to a total of 3 thousand 856 in the present year, of which only 244 correspond to males, the Bulletin states.

He speaks expert on syphilis in Mexico

In a recent interview with the BBC World of London, Dr. Carlos Jesús Conde González, deputy director of Prevention and Surveillance of Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP), said that in our country, STIs are "an endemic problem.

Infections that cause them

"Although we have not had abrupt increases in these conditions," says Conde González, "rather the risks are very well defined depending on each age group." These groups, explains the expert, include teenagers they begin their sexual life, women of reproductive age, men who have sex with men, and older adults.

In the case of Mexico, available studies also reveal that there are two infectious agents that can be considered a public health problem: human papillomavirus (HPV) and the herpes type 2 According to Dr. Conde, there is a huge difference between the incidence of these two infections - caused by viruses - and the incidence of major bacterial infections, such as syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia: "There is a 10-fold difference between viral infections and bacterial infections".

According to the expert, many young people do not know that a condom can protect them from much more than the HIV virus or an unwanted pregnancy. "Unfortunately, young people are often unaware of the importance of using condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, in addition to HIV. preservative It is also little or badly used. "Recent studies also show that young adults are more likely to have unprotected sex because they often lack the ability or confidence to" negotiate "safe intercourse.

In the interview with the BBC World, Dr. Conde believes that in Mexico "there has been a more conscious effort to get conversations from sex education in the school curriculum, with which young people receive more information about the condom. "
 

Video Medicine: The World War II battle against STDs (April 2024).