AIDS, herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis, just a few of the many sexually transmitted diseases that are now so very common among today"s youth. Some of them are more serious than others but all of them are a growing concern. Most are curable with a few treatments and trips to the doctor but among the more serious are AIDS and herpes. As we progress in technology, and just about everything else in society we also find our teenagers progressing more rapidly and with this comes concerns that scare us all to talk about let alone deal with. .

             Today one in every four sexually active teens has a sexually transmitted disease. (Witmer) I am writing this paper not only because I have to in order to graduate, but also to educate people, especially people my age about sexually trans-mitted diseases and just how very serious they really are. .

             AIDS.

             By far the most serious of all sexually transmitted diseases is AIDS. Today it is found that one in every four sexually active teenagers is infected with HIV or worse yet, full blown AIDS. (Witmer).

             It is nearly impossible to know you"ve been infected with HIV or AIDS because the virus can lay dormant for so long without showing any symptoms. This is why it is so easy to spread. Although there are treatments to ease the suffering of AIDS patients, there is no cure. More than 600,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States since 1981, and as many as 900,000 Americans have been infected with HIV. (Witmer).

             The most common spread of HIV is through sexual contact with an infected partner. Because the virus is so small it can enter the body through almost any kind of sexual contact. HIV was also spread by blood transfusions given before 1985. This is now a much less likely cause though because of all the testing and screening that is done on blood used for transfusions now. Another group of people who should worry about con-tracting HIV is IV drug users that share needles.