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Article: Sexually Transmitted Diseases
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
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SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES.
Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are infections communicated between persons through sexual intercourse or other intimate sexual contact. In the early 1970s, as the number of recognized STDs grew, the World Health Organization adopted the term to supersede the five diseases that collectively had been called venereal diseases (VD), chancroid, gonorrhea, granuloma inguinal, lymphogranuloma venereum, and syphilis. More than sixty other infections of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and viruses that can be transmitted sexually have been added to the designation.
Of the venereal diseases, gonorrhea and syphilis were the most ...