Worst STDs to Live With: These STDs Can Kill You

Do you know that more than one million people get infected with sexually transmitted infections daily according to World Health Organization (WHO)? Although the severity of each disease differs, there are some worst STDs to live with that can take your life.

Maybe you did not know, Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) is not the same as Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) although they are similar and are used interchangeably. Read How To Increase Sex Time Without Medicine

Differences between STI and STDs

1. The first difference that you will notice is that there is a disparity in the name – one is an infection and the other a disease.
2. A sexually transmitted infection becomes a sexually transmitted disease when there is the presence of symptoms – you can have an infection without knowing but once it becomes a disease, it becomes known either by you or by a health professional.
3. An infection is just the first step in the disease process. Not all diseases start as an infection but when it comes to sexually transmitted diseases, all of them start as an infection. 
4. Infection occurs when pathogens get into your body, some get in through skin-to-skin contact with a person who has an infection
5. Others are transmitted through an exchange of bodily fluids, like semen, vaginal secretions, or blood and starts to multiply but at the instance, they start to destroy body cells and tissues, signs and symptoms appear and it becomes a disease.
6. Finally, not all sexually transmitted infections develop into sexually transmitted diseases and a great example of this is Human Papilloma Infection (HPI) which is the most common sexually transmitted infection according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

Categories Of STDs

Sexually Transmitted Diseases are broadly categorized into two with one category being the worst STD to live with. This category that forms the worst STD to live with can be deadly STDs or not deadly and sometimes can be STDs gotten from STDs.

The two general categories are those that can be cured and those that currently cannot. Syphilis, chancroid, gonorrhea, chlamydial infection (Chlamydia), and trichomoniasis are the most common curable STDs. All are bacterial, except for trichomoniasis, which is a protozoan infection.

WORST STDs TO LIVE WITH

It would be unrealistic to think that any STD is harmless because the fact of the issue is that each STD is a health risk of varying degrees. With that being said some STDs are more dangerous to affect you for a longer period. Most of the worst STDs to live with are incurable and they are mostly caused by viruses but treatment can be used to relieve some of their symptoms and reduce the severity of their complications. Here’s a shortlist of some of the worst STDs to live with.

HIV

I’m sure this will not come as a surprise to most as this is the most prevalent STD and the World Health Organization has declared it an epidemic– because it affects every geographic location in the world albeit to a varying or different degree is a chronic disease that severely attacks the infected person’s immune system.

Although it is not a death sentence as it was decades ago, many of us will be familiar with the perils of having HIV disease.

It can spread and progress rapidly via three stages:

1. Acute HIV infection: This simply refers to the first two to four week period after a person has been infected during which he or she is highly contagious exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Some people experience no symptoms at all or assume it is the flu, which is why it’s important that you get tested if you think you’ve been exposed. 
2. Clinical latency: During this stage, the virus is still present and reproducing at a slow rate which can lead to the person feeling just fine. A person could live in this stage for several decades if he or she is undergoing proper treatment, lowering their chances of infecting someone else.
3. AIDS: In this last stage, the immune system is so damaged that they’re unable to fight off even the most minor illness. When left untreated, AIDS typically leaves those infected with just three years to live. 

HPV

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a viral infection that is passed through skin-to-skin contact. Usually, HPV clears off on its own without causing any health problem and in this case, it remains an infection. In a few cases, it grows to cause diseases such as genital warts and cancer.

It is extremely very common and about 90% of sexually active people will get it although for most the infection will go away within two years without detection or causing any harm. Many children, especially in developed countries, get vaccines to prevent contracting HPV  while women undergo routine screening (pap smear) and genital warts can be removed by some special cream or minor surgery.

The biggest problem with HPV transmission is that some types of HPV cause cervical cancer in females, and other, less common types of cancer — including cancer of the vagina, penis, anus, or throat. These cancers may not produce symptoms until they are advanced which makes them one of the worst STDs to live with.

Hepatites A and B

These are the leading cause of liver disease. Although there are vaccines now given to babies to prevent hepatitis A and B, those born before 1991 did not enjoy such luxury and in developing countries, people might not have the knowledge to take it.

The same was the case with hepatitis C although scientists just discovered the cure for it. It can severely impair your liver function, leading to illness and even death.

HERPES

Genital herpes is caused by two types of herpes simplex viruses, HSV-1 and HSV-2, with HSV-2 causing most infections. Herpes is an untreatable but manageable skin condition that gets into and lives in your nerves. It’s super prevalent: nearly everyone has the virus by the end of their lives. There are two types — the more common HSV-1 usually lives in or around your mouth (and is usually called cold sores), while HSV-2 prefers your genital region.

You can have the herpes virus inside you and not even know it. Some medications can suppress its symptoms and this anti-viral medication can majorly suppress it or suppress it in totality. Other nonmedical things exist that can be done to suppress it like supplements and herbs.

DEADLY STDs TO LIVE WITH

The most dangerous viral STD is the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which leads to AIDS. Other incurable viral STDs include the human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B, and genital herpes. Being incurable makes these STDs part of the most deadly sexually transmitted diseases there can be.

The Hepatitis disease strain (A, B, and C) affects the liver causing permanent damage. Although there are vaccines in place to mitigate these viruses, most of them progress and become well established and chronic leading to damages to the tissues of the liver causing death making it a very deadly STD

Although it’s no more tagged as “a death sentence”, HIV is very much a deadly STD majorly due to individual factors. With HIV, the disease progresses rapidly to become AIDS which is a very deadly STD.

This is made possible in individuals who do not adhere strictly to their treatment regimen due to one issue or the other such as pill burden, ignorance, carelessness, and sometimes just stubbornness or feelings of guilt and loss of self-worth.

The same can be said of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), vaccines have been developed to contain the disease but in developing countries, the vaccines are not fully adopted.

Although your body contains the virus without even your knowledge, in the few cases that the virus progresses especially in women, it causes cervical cancer which is cancer that leads to the highest death making it a very deadly Sexually Transmitted Disease.

In the presence of any other STD especially HIV, the likelihood for HPV infection to progress to the stage of causing cancer or genital wart increases massively making it a very deadly STD.

SYPHILIS

Syphilis joins this list of deadly STDs for very subtle reasons; it often doesn’t have symptoms, but even when symptoms do appear, they only flare up for a short time before retreating.

When symptoms disappear, in what is known as the “latent” phase of infection, the sufferer can be lulled into a false sense of security — while the bacteria that cause syphilis are still working away, doing permanent damage to the body.

Although the discovery of penicillin provided a cure for syphilis, its subtleness still makes it a very deadly STD. Syphilis comes in three “stages.” At any stage, syphilis can harm pregnancy and make it easier to contract HIV.

The first stage is characterized by painless sores, which even without treatment will heal. The second stage is characterized by rashes and lesions, which also go away without treatment. (These sores and rashes aren’t always noticeable, or might be confused for other conditions.) But it’s the late stage that’s the most infamous and can occur up to 20 years after initial infection.

It includes severe damage to the nervous system, brain, heart, or other organs, and can be fatal. Symptoms can include difficulty coordinating movement, numbness, paralysis, weakening eyesight, or dementia.

SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES GOTTED FROM SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES (STDs from STDs)

Having one STD can most times make one very susceptible to other STDs hence getting an STD from STD. many curable sexually transmitted diseases are ulcerative which means that there will be the development of sores in various areas of the body especially the genital area and this break in the skin makes it easier for pathogens that cause another sexually transmitted disease to get into the body easily hence an STD from STD.

STDs FROM ORAL SEX

One of the major ways in which you can get an STD from STD is through oral sex. Many STDs, as well as other infections, can be spread through oral sex. If you are exposed to an infected partner, you can get an STD in the mouth, throat, genitals, or rectum.

The risk of getting an STD from oral sex, or spreading an STD to others through oral sex, depends on several things, including the particular STD you or your partner has, the sex acts you practice, how common the STD is in the population to which you or your partner belong and the number of specific sex acts you and your partner performed.

You may get some STDs in the mouth or throat from giving oral sex to a partner with a genital or anal/rectal infection, particularly from giving oral sex to a partner with an infected penis.

It also may be possible that you get certain STDs on the penis (and possibly the vagina, anus, or rectum) from getting oral sex from a partner with a mouth or throat infection with having more than one area at the same time, for example in the throat and the genitals.

Several STDs that may be transmitted by oral sex can then spread throughout the body (i.e., syphilis, gonorrhea, and intestinal infections). Anilingus (or oral sex involving the anus) can transmit hepatitis A and B, intestinal parasites like Giardia, and bacteria like E. coli and Shigella.

CONCLUSION

It is of importance that we all recognize the difference between STI and STD so as not to have a false safety in living an unhealthy sexual lifestyle that may not manifest symptoms during the infectious stage, since we can actively transfer the pathogen to someone else.

Knowledge of vaccines is of utmost importance as most of these deadly STDs, the worst STDs to live with and even STDs from STDs can be prevented with childhood and /or adulthood vaccines.

You are advised to always seek appropriate medical care and proper diagnosis in the case of any signs or symptoms of STDs. Comments questions and contributions to this article are welcomed.