3 ms·
Ignorance of STDs was okay in 1960s, because antibiotics worked really great back then and just about every STD was easily curable.
by anovikov 9y ago
Ignorance of STDs was okay in 1960s, because antibiotics worked really great back then and just about every STD was easily curable.
- rconti 9y agoThis is being downvoted to oblivion but I'm not sure if it's true or not; hopefully someone can weigh in before it disappears.
- anovikov 9y agoWell hepatitis C wasn't and isn't easily curable, but i guess awareness of it was pretty low.
- jjtheblunt 9y agoIs a stronger statement that hepatitis C is NOT curable, as it's a retroviral infection, thereby rewriting host DNA? [ Edit: i'd remembered incorrectly from decades ago: it's an RNA virus ]
- matthewmacleod 9y agoTo be clear, hepatitis C now has a 95+% cure rate with modern treatments.
- kens 9y ago>hepatitis C is NOT curable, as it's a retroviral infection Hepatitis C isn't a retrovirus, so I don't understand what you're saying.
- henrikschroder 9y agoThere's a cure for Hepatitis C since 2015.
- drumttocs8 9y agoDoesn't seem likely. Do you have data on this?
- Fomite 9y agoImportantly, while the bacterial STIs were curable, Herpes was definitely not.
- 1jojojo 9y agoHerpes wasn't considered a disease at the time. It was not pathologized until later.
- astura 9y agoThis is more or less true. The pharmacy company Burroughs Wellcome is largely blamed for pathologizing "genital herpes" starting in the late 70s. https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/ypa8nb/did-big-pharma-create-the-herpes-stigma-for-profit https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/ypa8nb/did-big-pharma...
- refurb 9y agoWait a second. With heroes you get painful, oozing sores on your genitals. It sometimes never goes away and can flare up at any time. Does it really take a company to make people think of it as a disease? "Oh my penis feels like it's on fire and oozing all over me. However, I wouldn't call it a disease."
- yoklov 9y agoAIUI it wasn’t considered a disease similar to how cold sores aren’t.
- Fomite 9y agoAnd HPV wasn't linked with cervical cancer yet - that doesn't mean it wasn't a disease. And I'm comfortable calling HSV-2 a disease based on the potential congenital consequences alone. It's certainly a manageable one, and the stigma around it is silly, but if the common cold is a disease, then herpes is.