2008 Woodie Awards
New study reveals staggering STD statistics
Rachel Gull/Staff Writer
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: News
One location, the Warren County Department of Public Health, has a clinic in Indianola. The clinic provides HPV vaccines, gonorrhea and chlamydia screening and treatment, and HIV and AIDS screening.
Planned Parenthood, another clinic, has four locations in the Des Moines area. These locations provide education about STD's and offers testing and treatment for more than 15 STDs including herpes, HPV, Hepatitis B, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. The organization also is able to do testing for HIV and AIDS.
Planned Parenthood and the Warren County Department of Public Health are not just for women, either. These same services of testing and treatment are also available to men. Both the Warren County Department of Public Health and Planned Parenthood offer confidential treatment and diagnoses and are typically less expensive than private clinics. These sites also both focus on educating people about sexually transmitted diseases; a method that Holley feels is essential to preventing them.
"Learning about STD's is imperative," Holley said. "Sex education in high school should be mandatory. Teaching teenagers about the contraction of these sometimes deadly diseases and how to use protection will drastically help."
Sophomore Miranda Knake also feels that education about STDs is necessary.
"A lack of knowledge about the contraction of STD's exists," Knake said, "For example, people need to know that contracting something like herpes from oral sex, from mouth to genitals or vice-versa, is possible. Also, the 'it won't happen to me' attitude runs rampant among the masses. People need to know that it can happen to anyone."
Audlehelm understands the stigma associated with sexually transmitted diseases.
"This is a pretty sensitive area, and information like this scares people," Audlehelm said, "People come in all the time with strep throat or other viruses, but because these problems are sexual, people find them more upsetting and don't talk about them as much."
Planned Parenthood, another clinic, has four locations in the Des Moines area. These locations provide education about STD's and offers testing and treatment for more than 15 STDs including herpes, HPV, Hepatitis B, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. The organization also is able to do testing for HIV and AIDS.
Planned Parenthood and the Warren County Department of Public Health are not just for women, either. These same services of testing and treatment are also available to men. Both the Warren County Department of Public Health and Planned Parenthood offer confidential treatment and diagnoses and are typically less expensive than private clinics. These sites also both focus on educating people about sexually transmitted diseases; a method that Holley feels is essential to preventing them.
"Learning about STD's is imperative," Holley said. "Sex education in high school should be mandatory. Teaching teenagers about the contraction of these sometimes deadly diseases and how to use protection will drastically help."
Sophomore Miranda Knake also feels that education about STDs is necessary.
"A lack of knowledge about the contraction of STD's exists," Knake said, "For example, people need to know that contracting something like herpes from oral sex, from mouth to genitals or vice-versa, is possible. Also, the 'it won't happen to me' attitude runs rampant among the masses. People need to know that it can happen to anyone."
Audlehelm understands the stigma associated with sexually transmitted diseases.
"This is a pretty sensitive area, and information like this scares people," Audlehelm said, "People come in all the time with strep throat or other viruses, but because these problems are sexual, people find them more upsetting and don't talk about them as much."
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