With more HIV cases detected among the youth today, a Malaysian doctor expressed her concern about seeing more teenagers contracted with different sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
In a viral Facebook post by Sakinah Sulong, the doctor recently shared an incident about a man who visited the clinic to get treatment after contracting a genital disease.
The man was only 21 years old.
According to Sakinah, the youth visiting the clinic for STDs is something common today.
“The 21-year-old was exposed to the disease due to having multiple sexual partners. We see a lot of these cases in the clinics today.”
“Sadly, some of them are only teenagers,” Sakinah expressed.
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Despite not getting infected with HIV, Sakinah said she was sad and shocked to see that many youths are exposed to different STDs, such as gonorrhoea, syphilis, HPV, hepatitis B and C.
As of today, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, but effective cures exist for certain STDs.
According to Dr Sakinah, this situation also raises concerns about the refusal of vaccines by some parents, especially HPV and Hepatitis B, which are often given negative perceptions as supposedly encouraging free sex.
“Vaccines are an important preventive measure against serious diseases such as cervical cancer and liver cancer.”
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She also said that vaccines are not given to encourage free sex but to prevent these germs from causing cancer one day. HPV germs are linked to cervical cancer. Hepatitis B & C germs are linked to liver damage and, subsequently, liver cancer.
Dr Sakinah also reminded parents that children who appear ‘well’ are not necessarily risk-free.
“When parents refuse HPV and Hepatitis B vaccines on the grounds that their children will not be exposed to sexual activity at a young age, I advise them not to be overconfident.”
She explained, “Our child may be ‘clean’, but his partner may not be. Maybe he was ‘naughty’ once.”
What do you think of this ongoing situation?
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