STD Prevention Today (Printable Version)

Despite the fact that a great deal of progress has been made in STD prevention over the past four decades, the United States has the highest rates of STD infection in the industrialized world, making prevention as important as ever.

Preventing STD Infection
Reducing Your Risk of STD Infection
Prevention and the CDC
Featured CDC STD Prevention Information

Preventing STD Infection

The most reliable ways to avoid becoming infected with or transmitting STDs are:

Abstain from sexual intercourse (i.e., oral, vaginal, or anal sex)
Be in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected partner

Latex male condoms, when used consistently and correctly, can reduce the risk of transmission of chlamydia ¹, gonorrhea ², and trichomoniasis.³

Reducing Your Risk of STD Infection

All partners should get tested for HIV and other STDs before initiating sexual intercourse. However, if you decide to be sexually active with a partner whose infection status is unknown or who is infected with HIV or another STD, you can reduce your risk of contracting an STD:

Ask a new sex partner if he or she has an STD, has been exposed to one, or has any unexplained physical symptoms. Do not have unprotected sex if your partner has signs or symptoms of STDs, such as sores, rashes, or discharge from the genital area. Many common STDs have no symptoms but can still be transmitted to a sexual partner. If your partner has had sexual relations with someone else recently, he or she may have an STD, even if there are no symptoms.
Use a new condom for each act of insertive intercourse. Correct and consistent use of latex condoms and other barriers can reduce the risk of transmission only when the infected area or site of potential exposure is protected.
Get regular checkups for STDs (even if you show no symptoms), and be familiar with the common symptoms. Most STDs are readily treated, and the earlier treatment is sought and sex partners are notified, the less likely the disease will do irreparable damage.

Prevention and the CDC

The Division of STD Prevention, part of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, coordinates CDC's STD prevention efforts. These efforts include providing national leadership through research, policy development, and support of effective services to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV infection) and their complications, such as enhanced HIV transmission, infertility, adverse outcomes of pregnancy, and reproductive tract cancer.

CDC's STD Prevention Strategy
The prevention and control of STDs is based on the following five major concepts:

Education and counseling of persons at risk on ways to adopt safer sexual behavior
Identification of infected persons--with or without symptoms--unlikely to seek diagnostic and treatment services
Effective diagnosis and treatment of infected persons
Evaluation, treatment, and counseling of sex partners of persons who are infected with an STD
Pre-exposure vaccination of persons at risk for vaccine-preventable STDs

Primary prevention of STDs begins with changing the sexual behaviors that place persons at risk for infection.⁴ Moreover, because STD control activities reduce the likelihood of transmission to sex partners, treatment of infected persons constitutes primary prevention of spread within the community.

To enact its strategy, CDC is assisting health departments, healthcare providers, and nongovernmental organizations, and collaborating with other governmental entities, through:

The development, syntheses, translation, and dissemination of timely, science-based information
The development of national goals and science-based policy
The development and support of science-based programs that meet the needs of communities

As the lead agency for STD prevention in the United States, CDC will continue to improve both biomedical and behavioral strategies to combat STDs. Clearly, multiple strategies are required to maintain and improve progress in prevention.

Featured CDC STD Prevention Information

STD Prevention Program Management
This page from the NPIN Website offers information on the elements of successful STD prevention programs and how to incorporate them into your program

STDs Today
This page from the NPIN Website offers basic information about the current state of STD infection in the United States, describes common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the organisms that cause them, and gives an overview of groups at risk

Dear Colleague Letter - key STD activities from 2007 and emerging issues for 2008
From CDC's Division of STD Prevention

2007 Performance Measures
From CDC, a program announcement on 2007 performance measures to improve STD prevention in the United States

2007 Performance Measures Companion Guidance
From CDC, provides detailed information about the 2007 performance measures

Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines 2006
From CDC

Legal Status of Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT)
From CDC

Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT)
From CDC

Hepatitis B Vaccination Recommendations for Adults
From CDC

Video Podcast: 2006 STD Treatment Guidelines
From CDC, Dr. John Douglas and Dr. Kimberly Workowski discuss the 2006 Guidelines

Human Papillomavirus: HPV Information for Clinicians
From CDC, a brochure on transmission, prevention, detection, and clinical management of HPV

STD-Prevention Counseling Practices and Human Papillomavirus Opinions Among Clinicians with Adolescent Patients
From CDC MMWR Weekly October 20, 2006 / 55(41);1117-1120

Syphilis Elimination Effort (SEE) Toolkit
From CDC

Clinical Prevention Guidance
From CDC

Human Papillomavirus (H.P.V.) Vaccine: What You Need To Know
From the CDC’s National Immunization Program

STD Prevention Courses
From CDC

STD Prevention Edition – CDCynergy
From CDC

Prevention and Management of STDs in Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Toolkit for Clinicians
From the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases Prevention

Behavioral and Social Intervention Training
From the National Network of STD/HIV Prevention Training Centers (NNPTC)

Prevention and Management of Chlamydial Infections in Adolescents: A Toolkit for Clinicians
From the Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Recommendations for the Management and Prevention of Chlamydial Infections
From the Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Dear Colleague Letter - the Internet, risk behaviors and potential interventions
From CDC

Notice to Readers: Innovative STD Prevention Programs
From CDC’s MMWR Weekly, April 30, 2004 / 53(16);346-347