Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among the Young People Essay

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) have raised concerns in the public health sectors. Studies show that approximately five hundred million new cases of infections manifest in individuals of between 15 years to 49 years annually (Workowski & Bolan, 2015). The accessibility and availability of epidemiological information on STDs and associated risk factors in this population is a necessity. The data available helps in the development of prevention measures, diagnosis, and management strategies. The most common types of STDs are gonorrhoea, syphilis, chlamydiasis, genital warts, and HIV/AIDS. Health Nurses and community at large have a big role in addressing the menace of sexually transmitted infection among the teenagers and young people by addressing the risk factors, ways of prevention and creating awareness. The essay intends to describe and explain the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections and diseases among the young populations

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There are various risk factors associated with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The most common problem is the multiple sexual partners. It is factual that the more sexual partners a person has the more likely an individual is vulnerable to acquire a sexually transmitted infection. Having multiple sexual partners is a common trend among the youths who are sexually active to have more than one sexual partner. Young men think that it's a sign of mighty to have different sexual partners not knowing that the behaviour increases the chances of being infected by STDs (Diclemente, Hansen & Ponton, 2013). What the young people are not aware of is that one of the sexual partners you have might be having an infection hence the transmission. The young people may try being in a monogamous relationship as this will help to reduce the STDs transmissions.

Having unprotected sex is another risk factor associated with STDs. Engaging in sex without the use of protection increases the risk of someone contracting STD. Most teenagers and young people prefer engaging in sexual activity without any protection. Although using a condom is not a guarantee to be safe from contracting the disease, it is a highly effective way any person can have self protection. The teenagers are mostly encouraged to use protection, for instance, latex condoms, whenever they are having sex. Despite the fact that condoms do not offer a hundred percent protection, it helps in prevention of someone acquiring the disease in case the partner was already infected.

Additionally, alcohol use increases the risk of STD infections. For instance, the consumption of alcohol increases vulnerability to infections and also diminishes awareness of high- risk behaviors. Alcohol is the commonest type of substance that is abused by teenagers and young people. Several studies have shown that there is a close relationship between alcohol use and the incidence of sexually transmitted infections most in particular human immunodeficiency virus(Fuller, Vlahov, Arria, Ompad,Garfein & Strathdee, 2016).In fact, a drunk person loses proper judgment in a way that they may be less discriminating about whom they choose to have sex with. Use of alcohol also makes it difficult to convince a sexual partner to use a condom or even to put on a condom correctly hence raising the risk of a disease infection. This risk can be prevented by parents to the teenagers and adolescents. Parents should monitor their children's behavior so as to ensure that they do not take alcohol. They may prevent the young people from attending parties which are the common avenues where teenagers try on taking alcohol.

Use of birth control pills as a sole form of contraceptive is also included to be a risk for the contraction of sexual diseases. It is well known that for many young people the biggest worry about engaging in sexual activity is getting pregnant and not STDs (Garofalo, Hotton, Kuhns, Gratzer, Mustanski, 2016). Majority of heterosexual partners prefer birth control pills as their primary method of contraception. Therefore once a teenage girl is protected from getting pregnant, she and her partner become reluctant to use condoms not putting in mind that they are at a risk of infecting each other with a sexual disease. Youths should be educated that having sex has many consequences apart from unwanted pregnancy; they may also contract a sexually transmitted infection. There they should be encouraged to use dual protection. It is a better option to use both birth control pills and condoms at the same time to prevent transmission of the sexual infections.

Knowledge of sexually transmitted infections and the associated complications is essential for effective prevention and treatment. Some teenagers and adolescents who do not know the signs and symptoms of STDs may fail to recognize there need and so may fail to seek medical help. Nettina & Nettina (2013) reveals the importance of community health nurses to create awareness of STI so as to reduce the number of young people who acquire the diseases. The health workers may create awareness in many ways by ensuring that young people gain sexual healthcare in all sites of nursing practices. The community health nurses are required to have the understanding and competence desired to provide professional counselling services to teenagers, young people, and their parents. They may provide guidance and counselling in schools, homes, communities, religious centres, public hospitals, and clinics.

Community nurses can also provide youth-friendly care to control the continuously increasing rate of STD infections among the adolescents. It's necessary to ensure that there are no barriers for the youths to get health services in sexual and reproductive matters. The nurses can promote the accessibility by providing the friendly based services to adolescents, warm communication, ensure inclusivity by the adolescents and assure them of the confidentiality. Since most teenagers are in schools, the nurses may provide for them the services after school and evening hours, convenient location of the clinics to school and in transportation systems.

The nurses can take advantage of teenagers' high use of modern technology. Since most young people have access to the internet and the modern technology gadgets, the community health nurses should promote the use of mobile phone applications like Bedsider (Muessing, Legrand & Weidman, 2013). Bedsider allows youths using the application to search for available sexual and reproductive healthcare settings. This has shown to reduce unprotected sex among the youths.

Lastly, the nurses may opt to provide guidance and counselling services to both adolescents and their parents. Jones, Eathington, Baldwin and Sipsma (2014) suggest that the community health nurses should provide the nurses in homes, schools, acute care settings and in public health clinics. The nurses are required to possess the knowledge and relevant skills so as to give evidence-based counselling services. The services will equip the youths and the adolescents with important facts about the STDs and the associated complications as it will result in adequate prevention and treatment.

There are various ways in which teenagers and adolescents may get health teachings about the precautions that should be used to curb increased transmissions of the sexual infections. According to the World Health Organization (2016), it is important for the community health nurses to teach young people that not having sex is the best way to prevent sexual diseases transmissions. In case a young person has sex, he/she should use latex condoms. The community health nursing should advocate for distribution of condoms in schools so as to reduce the rate of new infections. Adolescents with alcohol abused should be encouraged to get help from professionals. Avoiding sharing of towels and underpants is also a precaution to prevent STD infections and transmissions. Then lastly, the community health nursing should encourage young people to get tested for any STD and HIV.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the community health nursing system should continue to address the problem of sexually transmitted infection to ensure that there are no further infections among the adolescents and the young people. The best strategy is to increase the nurse knowledge and skills in successful communication with both young people and parents is to integrate health counselling curricula into nursing education.

References

DiClemente, R. J., Hansen, W. B., & Ponton, L. E. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of adolescent health risk behavior. Springer Science & Business Media.

Fuller, C. M., Vlahov, D., Arria, A. M., Ompad, D. C., Garfein, R., & Strathdee, S. A. (2016). Factors associated with adolescent initiation of injection drug use. Public health reports.

Garofalo, R., Hotton, A. L., Kuhns, L. M., Gratzer, B., & Mustanski, B. (2016). Incidence of HIV infection and sexually transmitted infections and related risk factors among very young men who have sex with men. Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), 72(1), 79.

Jones, K., Eathington, P., Baldwin, K., & Sipsma, H. (2014). The impact of health education transmitted via social media or text messaging on adolescent and young adult risky sexual behavior: a systematic review of the literature. Sexually transmitted diseases, 41(7), 413-419.

Muessig, K. E., Pike, E. C., LeGrand, S., & Hightow-Weidman, L. B. (2013). Mobile phone applications for the care and prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases: a review. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(1).

Nettina, S. M., Msn, A. B., & Nettina, S. M. (2013). Lippincott manual of nursing practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Workowski, K. A., & Bolan, G. A. (2015). Sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines, 2015. MMWR. Recommendations and reports: Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Recommendations and reports, 64(RR-03), 1.

World Health Organization. (2016). Consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs for treating and preventing HIV infection: recommendations for a public health approach. World Health Organization.