How common are STD's?

Despite the fact that for most STD's there are effective treatments, the world-wide rate remains high. What is interesting is that due cultural attitudes towards 'sexual freedom' changing, combined with the reduced sexual restraint as a result of a more widely available oral contraceptive, rates of STD transmission continue to rise. Globally the funding to control STD's is almost uniformly inadequate and with many more people every year traveling to all parts of the world, and STD can easily spread itself globally in a short time effecting many usually unrelated populations. The effect of travel in the spread of STD's is most dramatically illustrated by the rapid spread of the HIV virus from Africa to Europe and the Americas in the late 1970s.

As early as 1996, The World Health Organisation estimated that more than 1 million people were being infected daily. About 60% of these infections occur in young people under 25 years of age - 30% of this age group being under 20 years. Between the ages of 14 and 19, STIs occur more frequently in girls than boys by a ratio of nearly 2:1; this equalizes by age 20.