208

INCIDENCE

OF VENEREAL DISEASES

Gonorrhea

Total Syph

1950-52

-52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 78

Source: Public Health Service

72 74

This chart illustrates the incidence of venereal diseases in the United States since 1950, according to Public Health Service figures.

N

THE PLAIN DEALEK, IN ISDAY, AUGUST 7, 1975

Doctors list at least 14 diseases

VD reaches epidemic stage

by Alton Blakeslee

AP Science Editor

LONDON One by one, Dr. Ambrose King ticked off the roster of what specialists now call the STD-sexually transmitted diseases.

There are at least 14 of them, and they've exploded into a worldwide epidemic.

STD is a more exact, more encompassing word for VD or venereal disease It embraces gonorrhea and syphilis, of but also trichoherpes virus genital even hepatitis.

course monas

chlamydia warts

(First of Two Articles)

And around the world all are increasing except perhaps for syphilis, said

King, who has been what he terms "a pox doctor” în London for nearly 50 years.

"I have seen terrible things," he said "To say that VD is like a cold in the head is crazy

••

“The public would panic if any other disease were advancing at the rate gonorrhea is," declared Dr Bruce Webster of New York Hospital-Cornell University Medical College

He and King were among specialists sharing the latest knowledge and concerns here at a recent Anglo-American Conference on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, with some amplifying their remarks in interviews

How casual sex can speed STD was illustrated in one British study that found that 1,639 persons had become infected from one source, in a, chain reaction

Perhaps 800,000 American women have gonorrhea and don't know it and can pass it on to sex part-

ners

It's not true that women do not have have warning symptoms of gonorrhea, said Dr King K Holmes of the University of Washington, Seattle Many do and could get early treatment, he contends

Further, says Holmes, 2 to 3% of men who get gonorrhea do not have telltale symptoms and can unwittingly infect women or homosexual partners Other reports put this far higher

In Africa, up to 20 to 40% of women of childbearing age have some form of STD, said Dr G

M Antal of the World Health Organization in Geneva He urged better worldwide reporting of

STD

On another worrisome side, Dr Andrew Falkow of the University of Washington reported that resistance to antibiotics by gonococci germs has been gradually increasing in many parts of the world Potentially, the resistance could burgeon to put the disease out of control

Delegates agreed that the public in general is not well enough aware of the terrible costs of STD in causing sickness, death, sterility, miscarriage nerve damage and other effects.

Some urged greater efforts at control through clinics and more research.

Many homosexual men think they're safe from an STD, but in fact, gonorrhea now is called the most common anorectal disease.

The proportion of men with early syphilis who name other men as sexual partners has increased from 23.5% in 1969 to 36.3% in 1974, reported Dr. Paul J. Wiesner of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga.

Mention *VD" and most people think only of syphilis and gonorrhea, the specialist said.

"Syphilis is no longer the captain of STD, but we should not write it off," said Dr Thomas B. Turner of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md

There were 91,600 cases of syphilis in the United States last year, and the incidence is down or hold-

ing fairly steady in other countries as well

Gonorrhea is the new captain. with 874.161 cases in this country last year, the highest in 55 years of record-keeping By one estimate, 25 million Americans have

gonorrhea

As for herpes simplex

virus, “Everyone thinks it is skyrocketing," said Dr. John M. Knox of Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex.

There are no solid figures, since herpes is not a reportable disease yet under U.S. law. It often is

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