2008 Woodie Awards
Have you been tested?
STD's are more common than you might think
Kayla Paine
Issue date: 10/30/08 Section: Opinion
Where is the student health center? Not many students, including myself, know. I had to ask about five fellow students before finding out where it is located.
Deciding to give light to a hardship many young people deal with was an easy choice, but once actually doing the research so many devastating facts were revealed.
Sexually transmitted diseases, STDs, are more common than people know. Most people are unaware and too scared to actually find out if they have an STD.
Many STDs are hard to identify, and people can have no symptoms for long periods of time. So many people may not be sure when they say they don't have an STD without being tested for all STDs.
Some STDs can be spread to people who aren't sexually active. Scabies, trichomoniasis, bacterial vaginosis, pubic lice and cytomegalovirus are some examples of these STDs that can just be passed by casual contact.
So even if you aren't sexually active and just "mess around" you could have an STD.
Arkansas State University students are no exception when it comes to having an STD.
The student health center offers many services including ones relating to STDs. They do HIV tests for $10, gonorrhea and chlamydia checks are $36.
Herpes one and two tests are visual diagnostic tests but can be tested after 12 weeks. Pap smears for human papilloma virus are available for $60. HPV can also be prevented by taking the three series of Gardasil shots, which are available for free before a student's nineteenth birthday. After that a student must pay per series.
"Some young ladies come in for their yearly pap to get on birth control and then they find out that they have HPV," Reneta Vaughn, director of the student health center, stated. "That's a life-long sentence; they're not going to get rid of HPV."
Most students believe that if they use condoms it can really prevent an STD when that's not entirely true; something could go wrong. It is just na've and irresponsible for any young person to believe so.
The student health center is a very private place for a patient to get necessary testing and information on STDs.
The most common STDs at ASU are herpes one and two, human papilloma virus and chlamydia. Herpes one and two are not two completely different classifications of the herpes disease. They both can be in the oral or genital area, or even both areas.
Visiting www.plannedparenthood.com and reading about all of the STDs listed there and what they can do to your body just made me sad as a person to be living in a society driven by sex, drugs and money.
The only true protection from STDs is abstinence, but if you are sexually active, then get tested and use protection. Be safe about your sexual partners.
Oh, and the health center is located by the football stadium right off of Stadium Boulevard.
Kayla Paine is a freshman journalism major from Siloam Springs. You can contact her at kayla.paine@smail.astate.edu.
Deciding to give light to a hardship many young people deal with was an easy choice, but once actually doing the research so many devastating facts were revealed.
Sexually transmitted diseases, STDs, are more common than people know. Most people are unaware and too scared to actually find out if they have an STD.
Many STDs are hard to identify, and people can have no symptoms for long periods of time. So many people may not be sure when they say they don't have an STD without being tested for all STDs.
Some STDs can be spread to people who aren't sexually active. Scabies, trichomoniasis, bacterial vaginosis, pubic lice and cytomegalovirus are some examples of these STDs that can just be passed by casual contact.
So even if you aren't sexually active and just "mess around" you could have an STD.
Arkansas State University students are no exception when it comes to having an STD.
The student health center offers many services including ones relating to STDs. They do HIV tests for $10, gonorrhea and chlamydia checks are $36.
Herpes one and two tests are visual diagnostic tests but can be tested after 12 weeks. Pap smears for human papilloma virus are available for $60. HPV can also be prevented by taking the three series of Gardasil shots, which are available for free before a student's nineteenth birthday. After that a student must pay per series.
"Some young ladies come in for their yearly pap to get on birth control and then they find out that they have HPV," Reneta Vaughn, director of the student health center, stated. "That's a life-long sentence; they're not going to get rid of HPV."
Most students believe that if they use condoms it can really prevent an STD when that's not entirely true; something could go wrong. It is just na've and irresponsible for any young person to believe so.
The student health center is a very private place for a patient to get necessary testing and information on STDs.
The most common STDs at ASU are herpes one and two, human papilloma virus and chlamydia. Herpes one and two are not two completely different classifications of the herpes disease. They both can be in the oral or genital area, or even both areas.
Visiting www.plannedparenthood.com and reading about all of the STDs listed there and what they can do to your body just made me sad as a person to be living in a society driven by sex, drugs and money.
The only true protection from STDs is abstinence, but if you are sexually active, then get tested and use protection. Be safe about your sexual partners.
Oh, and the health center is located by the football stadium right off of Stadium Boulevard.
Kayla Paine is a freshman journalism major from Siloam Springs. You can contact her at kayla.paine@smail.astate.edu.
Be the first to comment on this story