Sexually transmitted diseases expected to occur more frequently in future

Despite a decline until the turn of the century, sexually transmitted diseases could occur more frequently in the future, experts said at a press conference for the STI and AIDS World Congress 2013 in Vienna on Monday. Bacterial diseases in this branch of medicine have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics - in particular "older" sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea and syphilis as well as fungal and viral infections like HPV, Herpex simplex and HIV. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, around 448 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted diseases occurred in the 19 to 49-year-old age bracket each year. Combined with HIV there is an even higher potential for frequency of transmission. Congress Chair Angelika Stary said in Austria the resistance in treatment efforts to gonorrhea could be observed, in particular with cephalosporin antibiotics, Austria Press Agency reported. Syphilis is able to be treated better, with normal penicillin still proving to be an effective treatment. Also positive was National Institutes of Health (NIH) HIV/STD International Chief Thomas Quinn. He said the success of the fight against HIV/aids, for which almost 10 million people are currently in treatment, makes the goal of a generation without the affliction possible, though more prevention is required, he added.