European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 09, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse Cover Story sex diseases sounding the alarm from the cover deadliest std the human immunodeficiency virus his the cause of acquired immune deficiency syn drome. \ when aids surfaced More than a decade ago it was so ugly so hideous and so overwhelming that it transcended its membership in the std club. It was thought of As something else something from a higher order of diseases. But it is quite simply a sexually transmitted Dis ease different from herpes gonorrhoea and syphilis Only in its mortality rate. Its process of transmission is identical. A significant number of my his infected sol Diers have a history of an std of another Type said Ell. " Bell is at the front of the movie theater near . Darby Cavern in Furth Germany. This is the Manda tory one hour aids lecture for about 60 soldiers. She has Given it countless times and is both enter Taining and informative. It is not As she says an his 101 lecture filled with statistics and admonitions. Instead Bell talks in a mature no holds barred manner full of specifics. Anal sex she announces is a High risk behaviour for contracting aids because of the ease with which rectal Walls tear and bleed. His is carried in blood and semen. Some of you have teen agers she says. Listen to me. Teen agers Are having anal 1. Four soldiers Are about to enter one of Nurnberg s Well known clubs on a weekend night. Two say they have not had any aids education while in the army. Two others say it was minimal. It was like a 20-Rninute briefing one says. They Don t teach you another Guy is in Germany for one year. His wife remained in the United states. He is not playing around he says but he says he has had no aids Lee lures. There s no venereal disease education at All he says. All they re worried about is if you make the battalion look one said that during Basic training the Only word of warning he received came from the sergeant watch where you a couple Guys admit sheepishly that they have not had sex during their several months in Germany an other said he has had sex a couple times with Ger Man women and each time reached for a condom at the crucial Point of the act. They were like what is this they did t know much about that stuff he says. They All know one Guy in their unit is an animal about sex. He uses no precaution in practice or Selec Tion. If there was a Beetle running across the Street one says he d jump on it. Know what i mean they agreed that unsafe behaviour is stupid. In my opinion yeah one says if you re going to a gunfight you better pack a bulletproof vest.". When aids surfaced in the Early 80s, Community health professionals like Bell gasped. It s like i guess what it must have been like in the Early 1900s with syphilis Bell said. There was no effective since then the disease has been the Center of worldwide conferences the heart of thousands of medical journal articles a hot political topic the subject of sermons from the pulpit. It was first thought to be a moral problem a Gay disease but is now seen for the most part As a medical one. Yet soldiers Young and healthy seem not to have heard. No our std incidence has t changed said Bell. We still have real Busy clinics. I think the incidence has been fairly constants a Ron Jensen Jane Bell tells soldiers hat sex diseases Are he number one cause of sterility in Young Over the last several years. I Don t think we be seen any it is an easy problem to dissect. Soldiers Young and healthy think they will live forever. The word May be getting through Bell said. But they May not be selecting to modify their be Havior. That s the $64,000 question. How do we get peo ple to Stop smoking How do we get people to quit drinking his is getting the big hype Bell tells the sol Diers. But his is not the Only thing you have to be concerned syphilis killed gangster Al Capone. Aids then is not the Only std that can kill. That s what a lot of people think when they come in Here Bell Well at least i Don t have aids. Give me a shot of penicillin and let me eel out of Here " it is not always that easy. Std Are the number one cause of sterility in Young adults Bell said. People die every year of hepatitis b. And the Way they got infected primarily was through sexual the most common infectious disease in the United states after the common cold is chlamydia the most prevalent std and the illness affecting 70 per cent of Bell s patients. It is three times More prevalent than gonorrhoea and 30 times More common than syphilis. Chlamydia is the leading cause of Pelvic inflammatory disease in women and can cause painful periods and ectopic pregnancies where the fertilized egg attaches itself outside the uterus. In third world countries syphilis is the leading cause of stillborn births. If untreated even in advanced countries it can destroy the heart or the brain. Bell to the soldiers at the theater when i Tell you the same behaviour that got you infected with chlamydia is the same behaviour that will get you infected with his you Don t believe me.". A study done by the army found that More than half of its 600,000 soldiers were participating in be Havior that put them at risk to contract his from having multiple sex partners to having sex with an his infected person. In 1992, the army s mandatory testing discovered 556 soldiers carrying the his virus. The other serv ices have reported similar rates. In total 1,650 Active 7 duty service members have become infected. A significant number of the soldiers responded to the army Survey said that sex without a con Dom is Worth the risk. Figures regarding std in the army Are less easily uncovered but during the Vietnam War in 1968,. More than 25 percent of the army was infected. ". A husky sergeant is standing at the front of the theater next to Bell. His shoulders Are shaking with embarrassed giggles. Bell has just asked him if he knows How to use a condom. I believe i do he says. She hands him a condom. Through laughter and catcalls from his buddies the sergeant begins to cover a plastic Penis with the condom. Says Bell in today s environment this condoms As valuable As your Gas is causing another Soldier to stammer and stutter with embarrassment. Sgt. Brown she asks will you please Tell us what the largest sex Organ on your body is Brown laughs. So do his buddies. One rescues him from his predicament by shouting out the answer Bell is seeking. Your sex Bell says is 1 percent physical and 99 percent psychological. / " ,. More statistics. Three quarters of the world s aids cases 75 percent were transmitted through heterosexual sex. The fastest growing group of his carriers in the . Is women. They Are hav ing sex with intravenous drug users share contaminated Needles. One in 70 men us America carries his. A Soldier tests positive for his in Europe is returned to the states for treatment. Once full blown aids surfaces the Soldier is medically re we All know in drugs Are taboo Bell tells the assembled soldiers. But alcohol and other drugs when you Are under the influence of them you do things you Don t ordinarily there Are no recorded cases of his being trans melted through food she continues. I can Tell you the army has his Cooks she says. Cooking however kills the virus. And French kissing i vis in the saliva but in Small concentrations. About a quart of saliva would have to be transferred to put the recipient at risk. Vin 1985, the army began periodic testing of its sol Diers for his. Testing can provide a false sense of Security. I see that among soldiers having sex with sol Diers Bell said. People think testing is the Pana Cea. You have a negative test today but last week Cougot his May take six to 12 weeks to show in a test. Bell said she is often criticized for not emphasizing abstinence in her lecture. She mentions it she said but she is realistic enough to know that abstinence is unrealistic we were All created to be sexual beings " she said. D and sex is one of the greatest pleasures known to Mankind. How the question comes up again can you Stop people from having sex there is no Way. And that makes Bell s Job frustrating. Very she said. This is an area where there s a lot of burnout. It can get pretty depressing when you see people coming Back. It s usually the same Story. You wonder what Good this education is Page 4 sunday january 1994
