“Severe” STD “Epidemic” Costs U.S. $16 Billion

An “ongoing and severe epidemic” of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) has pounded the United States with 20 million new cases a year that stick it to the nation’s healthcare system with an astounding $16 billion in medical costs. Happy Valentine’s Day from Uncle Sam!

A new report issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the government agency that works to protect public health, reveals that STDs in the U.S. are taking a “severe human and economic burden” on the entire country. The figures are shocking; in 2008, there were 20 million new incidents of infection in the United States and a prevalence—new and ongoing infections combined—of 110 million, according to the CDC report.

The numbers have increased steadily in the last few years, researchers found. In 1996 there were 15 million new incidents of STDs in the U.S. and in 2000 there were 18.9 million. The figures started to skyrocket in 2008, according to CDC figures. The eight most common STDs are chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes, human papillomavirus (HPV), hepatitis B, HIV, and trichomoniasis.

Because some STDs, especially HIV and AIDS, require lifelong treatment and care, they are extremely costly. In addition, HPV is particularly expensive due to the high cost of treating HPV-related cancers. This is not to say that curable STDs are cheap to treat. The nation spends a whopping $742 million to do that, the CDC reveals, and chlamydia is the most commonly treated.   

The administration took the opportunity to promote a controversial HPV vaccine (Gardasil) in the report, though it didn’t specifically name the medication. Everyone is at risk for the potential outcomes of HPV, the CDC warns in its new study, adding that “HPV vaccines are routinely recommended for 11 or 12 year old boys and girls” to protect against cancer. The report continues: “CDC recommends that all teen girls and women through age 26 get vaccinated, as well as all teen boys and men through age 21 (and through age 26 for gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men). HPV vaccines are most effective if they are provided before an individual ever has sex.”  

If that’s not a plug for Gardasil, what is? Judicial Watch has exposed droves of public records illustrating the dangers of the government-backed vaccine which is manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Merck. Gardasil has been linked to thousands of adverse reactions and debilitating side effects as well as death in dozens of cases. Side effects reported by the government’s own Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) include paralysis, convulsions and blindness yet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fast-tracked its approval and the CDC keeps pushing it.

The scandal of this large-scale public health experiment is outlined in a special report published by Judicial Watch in 2008. It documents Gardasil’s scandalous government approval process, side effects, safety concerns and marketing practices.