The Pill: A cause?
Campus VD triples since last spring
By MARILYN McMULLEN
Kansan Staff Writer
Venereal disease is on the rise at KU. The number of cases treated at Watkins Memorial Hospital has tripled since last spring.
"We see only one third of the cases treated in Lawrence," said James W. Campbell, physician at Watkins. "We have close liaison with the county health department and private doctors in the community. They treat twice as many patients as we do."
Dr. Raymond Schwegler, Watkins administrator, said that eight to eleven cases of venereal disease are treated at Watkins each week. He added that the number of undetected cases on campus is quite large.
There is a higher incidence of gonorrhea than syphilis on campus. Schwegler described this as unusual, and said that although gonorrhea could cause sterility, it usually did not result in permanent brain damage as does untreated syphilis.
Schweegler said a possible cause of the rise in VD is the increasing number of pill takers. "When a rubber condom is used," he said, "some protection against infection is afforded. With the pill, a person is protected from pregnancy, but not VD."
Schwegler, who is associated with the public health service, said the Douglas County public health clinic distributes approximately 2,000 pills a month to women over 18. He attributed increasing promiscuity to the availability of the pill to almost anyone for the asking.
"If the incidence of VD continues to increase and people continue to be promiscuous, everyone might inevitably be infected at some time," he said.
Syphilis and gonorrhea germs are passed by infected persons during sexual intercourse or close body contact. A person can have either disease, or both at once.
A cured person can be reinfected by having intercourse with a person who has the disease. Symptoms of the diseases are somewhat different and vary with the individual.
A few days after being infected, a man with gonorrhea will experience a burning pain during urination and may have a discharge of pus. A woman will rarely have pain or notice any signs of gonorrhea until the disease has spread to her uterus. It then causes intense pain and sometimes warrants a complete hysterectomy.
cure rate is almost 100 per cent.
A blood test will reveal syphilis in any stage. The disease can be treated with antibiotics, and the
Gonorrhea is harder to detect. The germs must be grown in culture for several days to confirm diagnosis. Sometimes germs are thick in the discharge of pus from a man, but they are usually few and far between in a woman's lower genital tract. Gonorrhea cannot be detected by a blood test.
Because a woman notices no signs of the disease until it is quite advanced, she can infect several men without realizing it.
After syphilis is contracted, a painless sore called a chancre will appear where the germs entered the body. The chancre is usually obvious in a man but can be hidden in the genital tract of a woman, making detection impossible until secondary symptoms appear. They are fever, severe throat, a rash and headaches. Hair may fall out in patches. In this stage sores may develop in the mouth and the disease can be passed by kissing.
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In its secondary stage syphilis can imitate several other diseases, and is sometimes referred to as "The Great Imitator."
A person who suspects he has venereal disease should see a doctor immediately. If the disease is not treated, permanent brain damage, arthritis, blindness and heart disease may result.
Information on VD is available
at Watkins Hospital and the public health clinic, and treatments are kept confidential. A person who is treated is asked to name all those he might have infected so they can be contacted and treated.
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