<story><title>Once on the brink of eradication, syphilis is raging again</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/04/14/986997576/once-on-the-brink-of-eradication-syphilis-is-raging-again</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Perseids</author><text>And one other thing: Cheap, anonymous tests for everyone. It should be the norm that when you hook up with a new person &amp;#x2F; one night stand that you show them your recent negative test result. At least where I live (Germany) you can already get them sent to your home for 50€ (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;samhealth.de&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;samhealth.de&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) and you can get free tests at your local health office (Gesundheitsamt) if you are not too shy to argue a bit. AFAICT it should be a net positive for society to completely subsidize home tests for everyone, but that is probably an uphill battle against conservative prejudices even in Germany.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; A bit of diet, exercise, and an once of prevention is worth its weight in gold.&lt;p&gt;All those cases of &lt;i&gt;just&lt;/i&gt; eating less sugar &amp;#x2F; exercising more &amp;#x2F; sitting less are unfortunately &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; hard for most individuals. We really should strive to create environments where doing the good thing is as easy as possible. Like offering free daily work breaks for sport or having healthy lunch meals for children in school.</text></item><item><author>Frost1x</author><text>&amp;gt;With the risk of contracting a deadly disease falling to almost zero, condoms fell even more out of favor than they already were, says Park.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;&amp;quot;If one man is taking PrEP and the other one is virally suppressed, there&amp;#x27;s no HIV risk at all,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;So why use condoms if you don&amp;#x27;t mind having a touch of syphilis?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Humans really do take for granted the efficacy of antibacterials and antibiotics across the board.&lt;p&gt;These sort of harmful bacteria are completely and safely treatable now in most people, but the real potential threat is breeding drug resistant strains of bacteria, microorganisms and viruses. We shouldn&amp;#x27;t treat these fantastic tools like a pass to do whatever, we should instead use them sparingly and curb behavior. There are plenty of simple preventative practices than can reduce ever needing such treatments while &lt;i&gt;mostly&lt;/i&gt; being able to continue doing what you&amp;#x27;d like. A huge amount of these infections could be reduced drastically just by using a condom.&lt;p&gt;Rely on those prevention approaches first and drugs&amp;#x2F;treatment second to reduce the risk of creating situations where treatments don&amp;#x27;t exist. This can be said about a huge swath of preventable disease in the US. A bit of diet, exercise, and &lt;i&gt;an once of prevention&lt;/i&gt; is worth its weight in gold.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>xkr</author><text>For the people living in London: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.shl.uk&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.shl.uk&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;. Home delivery and completely free.</text></comment>
<story><title>Once on the brink of eradication, syphilis is raging again</title><url>https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/04/14/986997576/once-on-the-brink-of-eradication-syphilis-is-raging-again</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Perseids</author><text>And one other thing: Cheap, anonymous tests for everyone. It should be the norm that when you hook up with a new person &amp;#x2F; one night stand that you show them your recent negative test result. At least where I live (Germany) you can already get them sent to your home for 50€ (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;samhealth.de&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;samhealth.de&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) and you can get free tests at your local health office (Gesundheitsamt) if you are not too shy to argue a bit. AFAICT it should be a net positive for society to completely subsidize home tests for everyone, but that is probably an uphill battle against conservative prejudices even in Germany.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; A bit of diet, exercise, and an once of prevention is worth its weight in gold.&lt;p&gt;All those cases of &lt;i&gt;just&lt;/i&gt; eating less sugar &amp;#x2F; exercising more &amp;#x2F; sitting less are unfortunately &lt;i&gt;really&lt;/i&gt; hard for most individuals. We really should strive to create environments where doing the good thing is as easy as possible. Like offering free daily work breaks for sport or having healthy lunch meals for children in school.</text></item><item><author>Frost1x</author><text>&amp;gt;With the risk of contracting a deadly disease falling to almost zero, condoms fell even more out of favor than they already were, says Park.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;&amp;quot;If one man is taking PrEP and the other one is virally suppressed, there&amp;#x27;s no HIV risk at all,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;So why use condoms if you don&amp;#x27;t mind having a touch of syphilis?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Humans really do take for granted the efficacy of antibacterials and antibiotics across the board.&lt;p&gt;These sort of harmful bacteria are completely and safely treatable now in most people, but the real potential threat is breeding drug resistant strains of bacteria, microorganisms and viruses. We shouldn&amp;#x27;t treat these fantastic tools like a pass to do whatever, we should instead use them sparingly and curb behavior. There are plenty of simple preventative practices than can reduce ever needing such treatments while &lt;i&gt;mostly&lt;/i&gt; being able to continue doing what you&amp;#x27;d like. A huge amount of these infections could be reduced drastically just by using a condom.&lt;p&gt;Rely on those prevention approaches first and drugs&amp;#x2F;treatment second to reduce the risk of creating situations where treatments don&amp;#x27;t exist. This can be said about a huge swath of preventable disease in the US. A bit of diet, exercise, and &lt;i&gt;an once of prevention&lt;/i&gt; is worth its weight in gold.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rayiner</author><text>&amp;gt; AFAICT it should be a net positive for society to completely subsidize home tests for everyone, but that is probably an uphill battle against conservative prejudices even in Germany.&lt;p&gt;Great, now we’re “prejudiced” for not wanting to subsidize other people’s risky sexual behavior.&lt;p&gt;Did it ever occur to you that if there is, as you suggest, a large health burden associated with casual sex culture (and, according to the article, drug use culture), that maybe the “conservatives” are correct to be “prejudiced” against it?</text></comment>