Yokosuka’s health desk busts myths about STDs

[unhappycamper]

Yokosuka’s health desk busts myths about STDs
By Allison Batdorff, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Sunday, December 16, 2007

YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — No birds, no bees — just straight talk on the facts of life and the diseases that go with them. That’s what you’ll hear at the Preventive Health desk at Yokosuka Naval Base.

There’s a fair amount of myth-busting that goes on there, too — namely, the belief that military sex equals safe sex.

That unhealthy assumption is heard all too often, said Lt. Patricia Roldan, the Environmental Health officer. The department counsels people who have been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease, many of whom are often surprised to learn servicemembers aren’t regularly tested for STDs.

“One of the biggest misconceptions people have is that sailors are tested every year and that they’re safe,” Roldan said.

It’s not only sailors who make that assumption — military health officials told Stars and Stripes in telephone, e-mail and personal interviews that the belief is widely held throughout the services.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51003



uhc comment: It must be STD Saturday at stripes.com.