In a significant shift, the federal government is now calling abstinence and monogamy “the most reliable way” to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, a $16 billion annual problem that hits as many as 10 million teens a year.
In a very long rewrite of the “Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2010,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped the old language that monogamy and abstinence were just “a reliable way” to avoid STDs.
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The prevention section now reads: “The most reliable way to avoid transmission of STDs is to abstain from oral, vaginal, and anal sex or to be in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with a partner known to be uninfected.”
The CDC in its “Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2015,” just issued, also encouraged counseling and condom use.
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“For persons who are being treated for an STD other than HIV (or whose partners are undergoing treatment), counseling that encourages abstinence from sexual intercourse until completion of the entire course of medication is crucial. A recent trial conducted among women on the effectiveness of counseling messages demonstrated that women whose sexual partners have used condoms may benefit from a hierarchical message that includes condoms, whereas women without such experience might benefit more from an abstinence-only message,” said CDC.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
