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Military Personnel
Urged to Get STD Testing
(onlinedatingmagazine.com -
April 30, 2004) Members of the Preventative Medicine
staff at both the Naval Hospital Beaufort and the Depot
Branch Medical Clinic are trying raise sexually transmitted
disease (STD) awareness among
military personnel.
Preventive medicine urges that service
members get annual check ups, remain informed and
aware that there
are STDs out there, and remember that everyone is susceptible.
"This awareness month targets everyone who is
engaging in any type of sexual activity, regardless
of whether they are involved in a monogamous relationship
or not," said Chief Petty Officer Antonio Rodriguez,
leading chief petty officer for preventative medicine
at the Naval Hospital Beaufort. "The hope is to
pass on to the population that it's around you and
it isn't something that you put on the back burner."
As the hope of awareness rises, self-imposed expectations
also rise for the preventive medicine personnel to
educate more people as to what these diseases are.
"HIV and STDs don't discriminate against individuals,
so it is important to get the message out to everybody," said
Petty Officer 2nd Class Timothy Worley, preventative
medicine technician. "We are hoping to see an
increased awareness. Where ever you go there is the
existence of STD's and HIV and our best resource is
education."
The most prevalent point made by preventative medicine
personnel is that people know that these diseases do
not show favoritism.
"There is no color barrier, no one is immune," said
Rodriguez. It can happen to anyone whether young or
old and service members need to be aware that these
diseases can affect us all in one way or another.
"It is the first time away from home for a lot
of the people we want to focus on," he said. "When
you come into the military service it opens up a bunch
of doors and that presents a lot more opportunities."
Very often, this age group has not yet matured and
takes a lot of risks because of it, said Rodriguez.
"Young adolescents are at a higher level of risk
because they are starting to experiment with their
sexuality," said Rodriquez. "From the ages
of 15 to the mid-20's is when you are more susceptible
of [contracting] a sexually transmitted disease."
Even though the focus may be primarily military, this
month of awareness is intended for anyone who can be
affected by STDs.
"All over the U.S. there are high rates of STDs,
with Chlamydia being the highest," said Worley. "People
really need to be aware of the fact that some of these
STDs are permanent (Herpes, HIV and AIDS) and some
of them are devastating to your system. They need to
protect themselves and if they are not aware, they
need to find the resources and investigate."
Worley insists that people need to be proactive by
informing themselves as to what these diseases are
and how to prevent them from happening.
"If they don't know how to use protection, then
there are resources to help them," he said. "They
can come to us and we can give classes, or they can
go to www.cdc.gov, where there is a sexually transmitted
diseases link that has a plethora of information. The
Center for Disease Control is a government Web site
and is the ultimate authority for diseases in general.
They are the ones who put out the STD guidelines that
we follow."
While having access to information helps people remain
informed, Worley insists that people come to the clinic
to verify any suspicions.
"People should never self diagnose, it is a bad
idea," said Worley. "Do a conscience check,
if you think that there is the possibility that you
may have an STD then you should come in to be seen.
The reason that it is important is that there are STDs
that you can have that you may not know that you have.
For example a woman may have Chlamydia, but have no
symptoms and not know that she has it; it can spread
to other systems in her body and cause permanent damage."
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