Can pregnant women become infected with STDS?

Yes, women who are pregnant can become infected with the same sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as women who are not pregnant. Pregnancy does not provide women or their babies any protection against STDs. The consequences of an STD can be significantly more serious, even life threatening, for a woman and her baby if the woman becomes infected with an STD while pregnant. It is important that women be aware of the harmful effects of STDs and knows how to protect themselves and their children against infection.
Some STDs, such as genital herpes and bacterial vaginosis, are quite common in pregnant women in the United States. Other STDs, notably HIV and syphilis, are much less common in pregnant women. The table below shows the estimated number of pregnant women in the United States who are infected with specific STDs each year.

STDs		Estimated Number of Pregnant Women
Bacterial vaginosis		1,080,000
Herpes simplex virus 2		880,000
Chlamydia		100,000
Trichomoniasis		124,000
Gonorrhea		13,200
Hepatitis B		16,000
HIV		6,400
Syphilis		<1 ,000

STDs can have many of the same consequences for pregnant women as women who are not pregnant. STDs can cause cervical and other cancers, chronic hepatitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and other complications. Many STDs in women are silent; that is, without signs or symptoms.
STDs can be passed from a pregnant woman to the baby before, during, or after the baby’s birth. Some STDs (like syphilis) cross the placenta and infect the baby while it is in the uterus (womb). Other STDs (like gonorrhea, chlamydia, hepatitis B, and genital herpes) can be transmitted from the mother to the baby during delivery as the baby passes through the birth canal. HIV can cross the placenta during pregnancy, infect the baby during the birth process, and unlike most other STDs, can infect the baby through breastfeeding.
A pregnant woman with an STD may also have early onset of labor, premature rupture of the membranes surrounding the baby in the uterus, and uterine infection after delivery.
The harmful effects of STDs in babies may include stillbirth (a baby that is born dead), low birth weight (less than five pounds), conjunctivitis (eye infection), pneumonia, neonatal sepsis (infection in the baby’s blood stream), neurologic damage, blindness, deafness, acute hepatitis, meningitis, chronic liver disease, and cirrhosis. Most of these problems can be prevented if the mother receives routine prenatal care, which includes screening tests for STDs starting early in pregnancy and repeated close to delivery, if necessary. Other problems can be treated if the infection is found at birth.
Should pregnant women be tested for STDs?
Yes, STDs affect women of every socioeconomic and educational level, age, race, ethnicity, and religion. The CDC 2006 Guidelines for Treatment of Sexually Transmitted Diseases recommend that pregnant women be screened on their first prenatal visit for STDs which may include:

• Chlamydia
• Gonorrhea
• Hepatitis B
• HIV
• Syphilis

In addition, some experts recommend that women who have had a premature delivery in the past be screened and treated for bacterial vaginosis at the first prenatal visit.
Pregnant women should ask their doctors about getting tested for these STDs, since some doctors do not routinely perform these tests. New and increasingly accurate tests continue to become available. Even if a woman has been tested in the past, she should be tested again when she becomes pregnant.
Chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, trichomoniasis, and bacterial vaginosis (BV) can be treated and cured with antibiotics during pregnancy. There is no cure for viral STDs, such as genital herpes and HIV, but antiviral medication may be appropriate for pregnant women with herpes and definitely is for those with HIV. For women who have active genital herpes lesions at the time of delivery, a cesarean delivery (C-section) may be performed to protect the newborn against infection. C-section is also an option for some HIV-infected women.  Women, who test negative for hepatitis B, may receive the hepatitis B vaccine during pregnancy.
The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sexual contact, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and is known to be uninfected.
Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, can reduce the risk of transmission of gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis   Correct and consistent use of latex condoms can reduce the risk of genital herpes, syphilis, and chancroid only when the infected area or site of potential exposure is protected by the condom. Correct and consistent use of latex condoms may reduce the risk for genital human papillomavirus (HPV) and associated diseases (e.g. warts and cervical cancer).
If you have any questions or concerns, please call 1-877-638-2728 to speak to a trained counselor.  They will help you out in any way that they can, or you can visit us at accuratestdtesting.com.

Facts about HIV.

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is the virus that causes AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). Some people think that HIV and AIDS are the same thing; they are NOT.

There are two types of HIV that are recognized by the medical community: HIV-1 and HIV-2, along with nine differing variations of HIV-1. HIV-1 is the more common of the two strains in all areas of the world except West Africa.

When a person is first infected with the virus, large amounts of HIV circulate in the system. The virus infects specific cells of the body that have a certain protein called CD4. One type of cell is called the T helper cells, which is a very important part of the immune system. The human immunodeficiency virus is a type of virus called a retrovirus, which is a term that describes the process by which it infects a target cell. The virus attaches to a cell, infects the cell with its genetic material, and then the infected cell makes new HIV that will go and infect other cells.

After a person is infected with HIV the T helper cells in the immune system decline. Fortunately the body’s immune system is able to suppress the virus for many years; however, the virus slowly defeats the immune system and starts to destroy the cells it has infected. By destroying these cells, the body becomes very vulnerable to other infections and diseases. This is considered to be the beginning stages of AIDS. It is unclear why some people take longer to develop AIDS than others as well as the difference of susceptibility to infection with AIDS.

Most people with HIV do not have any symptoms and would not now that they are infected unless they were tested for HIV specifically. Depending on the study, about 30 to 50 percent of people with new infections of HIV will develop symptoms that last for one to two weeks. The symptoms can vary greatly from one person to the next. Depending on how a person’s body reacts to the virus will determine what symptoms, if any, show up. Some symptoms of HIV are mild to moderate flu-like symptoms: headache, fever, chills, night sweats, sore throat, body aches, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, back pain, or a general rash; just to name a few. These symptoms can often be confused with symptoms of other viral infections as well.

Seroconversion, a process in which the body develops antibodies to HIV, occurs during this time. It is also at this point that an infected person will have large amounts of HIV in their system. Since the symptoms of HIV can be so vague most people do not bother to seek medical care and remain undiagnosed for extended periods until they get tested.

Since HIV attacks a specific immune system cell, CD4 cells, when those levels drop below 200 an HIV-positive person is considered to have AIDS. A person is also said to have AIDS when he or she develops a combination of clinical conditions that their immune system would normally be able to fend off. A healthy person’s CD4 count is typically greater than 500 cells and as this number declines the body is more and more vulnerable to infections. For this reason a person who is HIV-positive or diagnosed with AIDS monitors his or her CD4 count closely. The CD4 count determines what types of infections a person is vulnerable to at any given time. There are currently several studies looking into the benefits of starting treatment before the CD4 levels fall below 350.

There are three ways in which HIV is transmitted: sexual transmission, exchange of blood or other bodily fluid, and exchange of fluids from mother to child.
Sexual transmission can be oral, anal, or genital sexual contact. The risk of transmission for any given sexual exposure depends on the type of contact and how infectious the partner is. An HIV infected person is most infectious when he or she are newly infected, possibly even before they test positive with the antibody test, and when they have AIDS. At these times the largest amounts of HIV are circulating. It is very important to understand that it is possible to transmit the virus through sexual contact at any stage of the illness. The more infectious a person is the greater the risk of transmission. Testing for HIV is the only way to know if a person is or is not infected with the virus.

People who have genital ulcers through herpes are more vulnerable to becoming infected with HIV, because breaks in the skin make transmission of HIV that much easier. HIV infection is not the only sexually transmitted infection, and having other STDs may increase the chance of spreading and acquiring HIV infection. A person who is at risk of acquiring STDs is also putting himself or herself at risk of acquiring HIV.
HIV can also be transmitted through blood and other bodily fluids in a number of different ways such as:
1) through a transfusion with infected blood organ or infected blood product
2) through a stick with a needle that has infected blood on it
3) through a splash of infected body fluids onto a mucous membrane or a break in the skin
4) through exchanging needles or other works for injection dug use
The risk of receiving HIV from a blood transfusion since 1985 is between 1 in 450,000 and 1 in 6,660,000. A person who is stuck with a needle containing blood from an infected person runs about a 0.3 percent risk of becoming infected with HIV. Other than the widely controversial case of the dentist who infected five of his patients with HIV in the 1980s, there is no evidence of transmission from infected health care workers to their patients.
HIV can also be transmitted from mother to child through the placenta, exposure to vaginal fluids at birth, or through breastfeeding. If a child is at risk for HIV infection, testing should be performed routinely until the child reaches one year of age. There was a study done in 1994 showed that infected mothers with a CD4 count greater than 200 and took zidovudine during their pregnancies and were given the drug intravenously during delivery, and if the newborn was given the drug after birth, then the risk of transmission fell to about 8 percent from 25 percent.

It is a good idea for people entering into new sexual relationships to be tested for HIV and other STDs before becoming sexually active. If it has been at least six months since their last sexual contact and/or exposure to any other risk factors, they test negative and are monogamous they can reasonably assume they are negative for HIV.

One of the more important issues to consider before getting tested for HIV is confidentiality. Even if you test negative for HIV, insurance companies may label you as high risk just because you were tested. This “high risk” label could affect your insurance coverage and/or premiums down the road. For this reason many people have elected not to get tested for HIV.

There are three main tests to test for HIV infection or to monitor the progress of infection:
1) Antibody Tests
2) DNA and RNA Testing
3) Immune System Testing

Antibody tests are performed in most clinical situations. This test is called enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This is a very sensitive test and is considered to be conclusive after 90 days post a potential exposure. Any positive test result from an ELISA antibody test has to be confirmed by a Western Blot test, which at least two antibodies to proteins p24, gp41, and/or gp120/160 must be present. It is possible to get an inconclusive or indeterminate result which means either the person may be newly infected but has not seroconverted or the person is not infected. In either case repeat testing in a few months is required to determine a true positive or negative result.

DNA and RNA testing look for the genetic material of the virus in what are called qualitative and quantitative tests. The qualitative test looks for the presence of HIV. It does not tell how much of the virus is present. The HIV DNA by PCR test is a qualitative test and can be performed in as little as three days after a potential exposure, but is not considered to be a conclusive result until after 28 days. The quantitative test or viral load tests look for the genetic material of HIV and amplify it to readable quantities. This test is usually only performed to determine the level of HIV in the blood for patients who have already tested positive for HIV. This test is performed to try and monitor the course of infection and is used to determine when medication should start to be taken or changed.

Another useful test that is used to follow the course of illness tests for CD4, CD8, and CD4/CD8 ratio. HIV attacks and destroys CD4 cells or T-helper cell count. The amount of CD4 cells circulating in the blood at any give point is a reference point for which physicians can monitor the progress of the infection and determine which therapies are effective and which ones are not. It is important to note that any of these tests are not used to determine if a person is infected with HIV.

If you have any questions, please call to speak to one of our trained counselors for free at 1-877-638-2728.  Or visit us at accuratestdtesting.com.

10 Things to Know About STDs

Are you having safe sex? If you answered “Sometimes” or “I think so,” consider these scary statistics: The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 19 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases occur each year in the U.S., and almost half are among 15- to 24-year-olds. Shocked? It gets worse. More than 50% of people worldwide will become infected with an STD in their lifetime. If you still think it can’t happen to you, here are 10 things you need to know about STDs…

1. Women are more susceptible to STDs than men…It has nothing to do with promiscuity. Women are more vulnerable to infection than men because of anatomy. It’s easier for men to transmit infections to women than vice versa. STDs are also more difficult to detect in women.

2. There are more than 25 known STDs. The most common STDs are Chlamydia, gonorrhea, hepatitis B, genital herpes, HIV, human papillomavirus (HPV), syphilis, pubic lice/crabs, and trichomoniasis. Since 1980, more than eight new STDs, including HIV/AIDS, have been identified. Infections can be viral, bacterial or parasitic.

3. STDs can be transmitted through oral sex.  Contrary to popular belief, having oral sex doesn’t mean you’re playing it safe. In fact, having unprotected oral sex puts you at especially high risk for gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, and hepatitis B. Always use a condom when having oral sex with a new partner. Female condoms can also help reduce the risk of STDs, and should be used when receiving oral sex.
STDs can be contracted through vaginal, anal and oral sex. They travel from person to person through semen, vaginal fluids and blood. Some STDs can also enter the body through tiny cuts or tears in the mouth, genitals or anus.

4. STDs are treatable, but not all are curable.  Bacterial STDs like Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis can be cured. Viral STDs like herpes, hepatitis B, HIV, HPV, and genital warts are incurable, though they can be managed.
Living with an STD affects not only your physical health, but it affects you emotionally, too. It can also take a toll on your romantic relationships. If you have an STD, tell any potential partners before having sexual contact with them. Be straightforward and honest. In some states, it’s a criminal offense if you don’t! And before you have sex with a new partner, you should both get tested.

5. Some STDs are asymptomatic.  Since certain diseases have no visible symptoms, you may not know that you or your partner has been infected. Chlamydia, for example, is especially asymptomatic. Likewise, it can take up to 10 years or more for women to develop the symptoms of HIV. The time it takes for an STD to appear depends on the type of STD contracted.
STD symptoms are often similar to those caused by other infections, so it’s easy to mistake them for conditions like yeast infections or urinary tract infections. Remember: You don’t need to see symptoms for an STD to be contagious. Because many STDs are asymptomatic and women don’t get treated, it’s hard to know how many people become infected each year.

6. Untreated STDs can have serious health consequences…Women suffer more frequent and serious health complications from STDs than men do. And by the time women notice symptoms or see a doctor, complications from the untreated infection may already have jeopardized their health.
STDs can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), cervical cancer, liver disease, and infertility. Some can be passed from mother to baby before, during or after birth. Pregnant women with STDs are also at a higher risk for tubal pregnancies, miscarriages and premature delivery. In a worst-case scenario, untreated syphilis can lead to death in women.

7. Chlamydia is the most commonly reported infectious disease in the U.S. The CDC estimates that 2.8 million new cases of Chlamydia are contracted each year. Most go undiagnosed. Chlamydia infects the cervix, making adolescent girls most susceptible since their cervix is changing during puberty.
The majority of women with Chlamydia have no symptoms. Left untreated, Chlamydia can cause PID, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. Fortunately, if detected early, Chlamydia can be easily cured with antibiotics since it is a bacterial infection.

8. Most doctors don’t routinely screen for STDs. The American Social Health Association reports that less than one-third of physicians routinely screen patients for STDs. And don’t assume a normal Pap test gives you a clean bill of health. A Pap smear only detects changes in cervical cells; it doesn’t test for specific diseases. However, an abnormal pap smear may indicate HPV, and further tests may be done. Ask your doctor what your exam will entail and request relevant testing if you’re sexually active.

9. Condoms aren’t a 100% guarantee against STDs…They’re not failsafe, but aside from abstinence, condoms are the best and only protection against STDs. Use a new latex condom every time you have oral, anal or vaginal sex with a new partner outside of a monogamous relationship.

10. About 50% of sexually active women acquire genital HPV infection at some point in their lives…Out of 100 strains of HPV, about 30 are sexually transmitted. About 10 are “high risk” and can lead to cervical cancer. “Low risk” types may cause genital warts.
Most will never know they have it because the immune system can eliminate the less aggressive forms of HPV on its own. However, more aggressive strains of HPV will stick around and cause multiple health problems, like cervical cancer. The only way to detect HPV is through a Pap smear, where pre-cancerous changes in the cervix are visible.

If you have any questions, please call 1-877-638-2728 to speak to a trained counselor.  They will be able to help you out in any way they can.  Or visit us at accuratestdtesting.com.

A Few Things About STDs

A lot of people believe that if they haven’t had sex they cannot receive an STD. The truth is that STDs can be contracted through oral, vaginal, and anal intercourse. If someone has had any of these types of intercourse it might be a good idea to get tested.

But if you’re not showing any signs of symptoms there’s no need to get tested, right? Wrong, many STDs progress without showing symptoms in certain individuals. While not having any symptoms is a great sign, nevertheless it is probably a good idea to get tested if you’ve had any risky sexual behaviors.
Keep in mind that condoms, when used correctly, do a great job of protecting people against STDs. However, things like herpes that are transmitted through skin-to-skin contact can still be contracted even when using a condom. For that reason you should always be aware of symptoms that may exist where the condom did not cover. Herpes can also be carried orally in the form of a cold sore. While cold sores are common and not something to be worried about, it is important to be aware of them on yourself or on partners because they can transmit the type-1 herpes virus through skin-to-skin contact as well.

Carrying on or starting a relationship with an STD can be difficult or uncomfortable in some situations.  A suggestion for getting through this is to be knowledgeable about your STD. The more you know about it, the better you will be able to inform your partners and make smart decisions. If you have a current partner at the time of diagnosis, they should be tested and treated as well for the STD. If the STD is incurable, stay adherent to the medication and make sure you inform any potential partners of your infection before any sexual contact.

If you decide to do some testing, make sure you are open and honest about any symptoms, possible exposures, or recent partners you’ve had when you speak with someone. They use this information to make sure you are doing the right tests at the right time so you don’t receive any false results.

If you have any questions please call and speak to one of our trained counselors for free at 1-877-638-2728.  They will be able to help you out in any way they can.  Or you can visit us at http://accuratestdtesting.com/index.html.

10 Misconceptions About STDs

Call 1-877-638-2728 to speak to one of our counselors for free. They will be able to address any questions or concerns that you may have.

Here are some of the most common statements made about sexually transmitted infections. See how many of these statements you believe are true:

1. If I don’t have any symptoms, I can’t have an STD.

2. If my partner and I get HIV tests and we are negative, then we don’t have to worry about using condoms.

3. When I got my yearly Pap smear, my doctor would have told me if anything were wrong.

4. If I use a condom, I can’t get an STD.

5. Oral sex is safe. I can’t get an STD with oral sex so I don’t need to use a condom.

6. Only promiscuous people get STDs.

7. I had Chlamydia before, and I had symptoms. Since I don’t have any symptoms now, that means I don’t have an STD.

8. Douching after sex will help protect me from getting an STD.

9. People with herpes always have symptoms.

10. I can’t transmit herpes if I don’t have an outbreak.

If you assumed these are true statements, you are not alone; however, all these statements are false.

Call us toll free at 1-877-638-2728 to speak with a counselor for further information. Or visit us at http://www.accuratestdtesting.com/.