Taking a break
Venereal disease is expected to double after Spring Break
by Brett Brenner Kansan staff writer
Seaana Growney couldn't believe what she bad just heard.
She had no more than stepped out of the front door of her Overland Park home on her way to Padre岛 when her mother gave her some advice.
"She yelled. Remember Sean, go glove, no love," said Growney, Overland Park sophomore. "I don't think that she was really serious. It was my first time going on Spring Break. She just knew what kind of place I was going to."
Kansan staff writer
The advice, though it may not have been given in all seriousness, is good advice, health officials said.
Charles Yockey, chief of staff of Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that the rate of sexually transmitted diseases at the hospital ramps during the month after Spring Break.
Yockey said that there was also a greater variety of diseases after Spring Break.
Watkins usually has 60 visits during an average month, but in April the number jumps to somewhere near two times two or three times to solve their problem. Yockey said
"The harvest of Spring Break activities is double the normal load," he said. "When you have intercourse without a condom, you run the nutmul."
Yockey said that chlamydia, the leading cause of sterility among women, was the most common sexual disease. Watkins also treats genital warts, gonorrhea, herpes, syphilis, chancroid, pubic lice and scabies after Spring Break. he said.
Chanroid is unusual in that it is a venereal disease common in South Texas, but unusual in Kansas.
"Every year we get two or three cases of chancreid, which is unusual in this area," he said.
Scabies is an infectious disease of the skin caused by a mite which causes small blisters or lesions.
Yockey singled out three reasons he thought helped the spread of diseases at
The first reason is education, he said.
The first lesson is about "We" and the students who don't understand pregnancy," he said. "I had a young woman ask me the other day if she could get an腹痛 from heavy wetting."
"These students are not going to know about sexual diseases."
Vockey said that the second element contributing to the spread of diseases was denial
"The students know how to prevent the disease, but don't do it," he said. "People know that when they drive they should wear
a seatbelt, but they don't always do it. The concept is the same. They deny the facts of sexually transmitted diseases and participate unprotected."
The final reason is alcohol, Yockey said. "My advice would be to consume alcohol in moderation only," YocKEY said. "Recognize the power of peer pressure and act based on what you know is right and not the group norm at the time.
"I'm not trying to discourage students from Spring Break," he said. "Just have a good time without having sex with someone you don't know. Assume that anyone you have sex with is infectious. If you don't abstain, use a condom."
Dennis Dalley, professor of social welfare, said the reason students go on Spring Break was not just to drink and have sex, but tradition.
He said that alcohol abuse was the main cause of outrageous behavior, including sexual behavior.
"A lot of young people go beyond being able to manage their drinking habits," Daly said. "This can lead to increased risk and problems, as sexual intercourse in a drunken stupper."
"There is nothing wrong with going down to Padre or Lauderdale to throw down a few beers, or have sex with your girlfriend. The problem arises when you drink so much you lose control and drown in a pool or have sex that you don't want."
Janey said his advice was simple.
"First I'd tell them that they are going to sit out in the sun, be sure and wear some lotion. If you are going to have some suds, don't drink in excess. If you are going to have sex, let me make it good, not bad, let me in a drunkest stupor, and not unprotected," he said.
Sid Walsh, pharmacist at Island Pharmacy on South Padre Island, said that college students went on Spring Break for the same reasons they went to college.
"They go to college for beer and sex, why not Spring Break?"
He also said that there would be little excuse for not having safe sex during this Spring. Break, at least on South Padre Island.
"We sell far more than five or six times what we usually sell. Partly because of the population increase, but also because we're the only pharmacy on the island."
"Sure, we stock condoms," he said. "They're items over $30 per pack." He laughed as the blooming
As for the expected post-P春短 Break increase in sexually transmitted diseases, Yockey explained it this way: "Students like to sow their wild oats and hope for a crop failure, and that doesn't always work."
**Illustration by Paula Henkel/NOVA** KANSAN Taking a break/March 1, 1989