Nearly one billion people world wide – around 24% of all those aged below 50 – have an incurable STI, with experts warning that nobody appears to have a plan to deal with it
A whopping 900 million people have an incurable STI, a new study claims. According to a team led by epidemiologist Manale Harfouche from the Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, genital herpes is the most common incurable sexually transmitted infection contracted around the world. A staggering 24% of people aged under 50 worldwide have been struck by it.
They also found that around 520 million of those with it have the HSV-2 strain, which can cause painful blisters or ulcers on private areas and is spread by skin-to-skin contact. The group also found that 129 million cases of chlamydia were reported in 2020 – although that is curable.
Harfouche warns: “HSV infections are widely prevalent in all global regions, leading to a significant burden… on psychosocial, sexual, and reproductive health, neonatal transmission, and HIV transmission.
“However, hardly any specific programmes for HSV prevention and control exist, even in resource-rich countries partly due to the lack of tools to address such highly prevalent, often asymptomatic, and incurable infections on a population level.
“Available prevention modalities, including condoms and antiviral therapy, are insufficient to control infection transmission and have, at best, had a modest population impact in reducing incidence rates. There is a need for HSV prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines as a strategic approach to control transmission and to curb the disease and economic burdens of these infections.”
Source : https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/incurable-sti-ravaging-nearly-one-34291422
