The number of people in the United States with an STD recently hit an unprecedented high. Data released in October, revealed that in 2015, there were increases in all nationally reported STDs for the second year in a row. There were 1.5 million reported cases of chlamydia—the highest number of STD cases ever reported to the government—and people between the ages of 15 to 24 accounted for the largest number of infections.
But why?
For starters, only 22 states and the District of Columbia mandate both sex education and HIV education, and many schools provide an abstinence-only curriculum. Sex education classes often focus largely on preventing unintended pregnancies and less on preventing infections, which may explain why young people today are not as fearful of STDs as previous generations. They were too young to remember the emergence and spread of HIV—the time when a diagnosis was equivalent to a death sentence—and advancements in medication and treatments of STDs and HIV may also offer a sense of security.
