Monday, May 18, 2009

Sex in..... Gaza????

As I was surfing through dozens of infectious disease journal Icame across this interesting article in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (Volume 13, Issue 3, May 2009, Pages 334-341 ) about the prevalence of Chlamydia among women visiting infertility clinics in Gaza. Chlamydia is one of the most common sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs) in the world.

The study was conducted by researchers from Al-Azhar University, The Islamic University and the Medical Military Services all located in Gaza in 2005 and 2006. 109 women were screened, and 20.2% of them were found to be infected with Chlamydia.

Although Chlamydia is a very common cause of STDs, it is not the only one. The study did not investigate further if the same group of women or other women were infected with other STDs, which is very possible. At the same time we cannot extrapolate this high percentage of infection to the rest of the community living in Gaza because women who visit infertility clinics tend to have a higher chance of being infected with an STD.

I am still somewhat surprised. I will assume that most of these women were infected by their husbands. Men can get this infection from women or men. These results should be an eye opener not only to people living in Gaza whose last worry is getting an STD, but also to other people living in the Middle East. Gaza is not exactly known to be a safe haven for the sexually promiscous, and yet one out of five women there carries an STD. I wonder how the results in Amman or Dubai would look like. Chlamydia is easily curable, but other STDs (like syphilis, HIV, HPV) harbor very serious longterm consequences on those who are exposed to them and their human and economic cost can be incredibly high for countries with tight budgets like Jordan or Palestine.
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To read the abstract for free, click here.

59 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, one can argue that this can also be caused by the lack of protection methods ( as I guess). while in other countries like Jordan, such methods are quite cheap and commercially avaialable. And to tell the truth, I now go with the idea that the more poeple know, the more they're protected. I think that many people in Jordan deal with extramarital relationships as something ussual, and thus will be bale to deal with such relations better than people who don't accept this fact and keep their heads underground

Hareega said...

Gaza with its population density is clearly not a big supporter of using protection methods! I hope it will one day. With so many young people dying over there the attitude is that of having many kids to replace those who perish.

Carol said...

There was a report a few months ago that surfaced and got suppressed rather quickly. Many Palestinains who get treated in Israel returned with various diseases that the researcher attributed to contaminated blood supplies that Israelis do not use for their citizens. If you recall the uproar in Israel a few years back when it was discovered that the Israeli Ministry of Health was destroying blood donations by Ethiopian Israelis because of high % of disease contamination, they say. Now, they simply use them on Palestinian patients, according to the researcher. I have tried to find the study but I was unable to. This reminds me of the respected Spanish researcher whose genetic research proved no discernible differences in the gene pool of Palestinains and Eastern Jews. His study was even removed from bibliographies in US universities. and sites on the web that contained his research kept getting shuttered. You might still find traces of his study here and there.

kinzi said...

With a mom who was a family planning nurse practitioner, I know well how STDs can adversely affect fertility. Surely this affects the cost of health care when infertility treatment is covered by insurance.

I was thinking the other day about asking you if you felt there was a correlation between STDS and the cost of obstetrical health care. I think that there may be a connection between cesarean birth rates and the high rate of mothers with herpes. the cost of which is also passed on to premiums.

BUT, about Gaza, I agree. those women have enough to worry about without STDs. Makes me a little angry that women pay yet another price for male promiscuity when their life depends on their virginity initially, and their reputation on bearing sons later.

Anonymous said...

Kinzi: we can always count on you to bash Arabs using women issues as a ramming rod. We don't see the same zeal in going after American men who commit violence against Arab and Muslim women. And we don't see you volunteering in groups supporting Arab women who have been brutalized by American men. I am not surprised. that's what ideologues are known for, irrational and untruthful. And you are a christian fundamentalist ideologue.

kinzi said...

Anon, I wish you could find a more productive lightening rod for your contempt. 300 visitors from Arab sites read my blog a day, and few others besides you and your other aliases consider me an Arab-basher.

If American men were abusing Arab women at the rate Arab men are, I would certainly be writing about it. You must have missed this post:
http://kinziblogs.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/no-we-know-you-are-a-monster/.

I can be irrational, but not untruthful. I am honored to be a Christian, a fundamentalist, and an idealogue. And a woman who helps women who have been abused.

Now, instead of name-calling, would you please get on board with us? With all the effort you have expended bashing me, you could have contributed something of real value to the cause.

I admire your passion, please direct it a more productive manner. If you are a woman in Jordan, I'd love to sit and have a coffee and talk about it.

Anonymous said...

Kinzi you say if American men were abusing Arab women at the rate Arab men are, I would certainly be writing about it

So to you the mass slaughter of Arab women in Iraq and Muslim women in Afghanistan is not abuse. Murder of women in the hundreds of thousands is not abuse? Thank you for proving my point.

Kinzi You have no respect for Arab and Women Muslims lives. You have a racist christian fundamentalist agenda.

Unknown said...

The bottom line is these guys should stop screwing around on their wives and giving them STD'S! It is a double standard. Women have to be virgins when they get married never cheat after they are married and these guys are going out screwing their brains out getting diseases and giving them to their wives! Nice! Yes women are treated badly all over the world but in this instance we are talking about stds's.

Rola said...

Hi Carol, I did come across the tainted Israeli blood supplies report too.

Hareega said...

Carol, yes Israel used to fump blood donated from Ethiopian Jews because they considered it contaminated even before testing it, I remember the scandal when it broke on Israeli TV.
I only found this link from Washington Post:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-762002.html

However, most other STDs like Chlamydia are not transmitted by blood transfusion.

Hareega said...

Kinzi, STDs are very very costly to have. It's not the medications but also their complications like PIDs, ectopic pregnancies and onfertility. These are incredibly expensive.

Anonymous, yes kinzi often criticizes many wrong behaviors in our society and I hope she will continue to do so.

San Antonir, I agree, the harm of being unfaithful can be even physcial as if the psychological harm is not bad enough.

Anonymous said...

Hareega, but if Kinzi only sees Arab faults while developing a a blind spot the size of Texas for her own people's far more grotesque faults that does not make her a nice person. It makes her many things none of which are flattering. Imagine if a Zionist comes to Jordan to tell us to respect human rights. How perverse. That;s how I see Kinzi and other Americans who come to us to pontificate about human rights. I have no problem with reformers be it Arab or Martians. I have a serious problem with those who fail to address their own flaws but fnd it in their heart to tell us what's wrong with us. Had Kinzi been a Swede or Norwegian for example she is welcome to speak her mind. But when an American goes on a bogus crusade in defense of Arab women without spending even half the effort on defending Arab women from her own countryman's brutality. She really believes that when American men kill Arab and Muslims women that this is an order from God. that's the mother of all hypocrisies and a prime example of clinical racism. Kinzi sees no problem with American wholesale slaughter and starvation and impoverishment of Arab women. She sees only the handful of Arab women killed by Arab men. If this is not sick racism I don't know what is.

kinzi said...

Hareega, thanks for the info, and the back-up. :)You are an honorable man.

Anon, I don't mind if you don't think I am nice, call me names or any other form of slander, but lying about who I am, believe or what I think on the internet is unacceptable.

"She really believes that when American men kill Arab and Muslims women that this is an order from God."

Unacceptable.

I love Arabs and Muslims enough to call them to live out of there highest, God-ordained giftings. Your comments are beneath your abilities for good and unworthy of
Arab honor.

I don't have the power to change my government or military other than by voting. But in Jordan, I can help change the status for women.

I am done, and will not engage in further fruitless discussion.

Anonymous said...

Kinzi what do you mean when you say "I don't have the power to change my government or military other than by voting. But in Jordan, I can help change the status for women."

That's the most irrational argument ever made by a racist in defense of an indefensible argument. You have no vote in jordan. you are not a Jordanian. You are not an Arab. Yet with all of these limitations you feel you have more power to change things in Jordan?

How about if you start a blog about the brutality of American men to Arab and Muslim women? That would be a start.

Hareega said...

Anonymous, we have reached a state when we're not open to criticism from anyone. We have become very defensive and we keep investigating the motives of anyone who criticizes anything wrong in our community. I know you're saying that you're more open to criticism if it was an Arab criticizing you, but that is not the usual case in the Arab world. Arabs hate each other and would never accept criticism from each other. Anyway, I think it's better to focsu on the criticism itself and not the person saying it. As for kinzi she's lived in Jordan since forever. I live in the US and I criticize many things in the community here and generally this is acceptable even when I'm not American.

Unknown said...

Thats real nice of the Israelis to give Palestinians tainted blood, and they wonder why Arabs don't like them. As for aids and other diseases this is a world problem that everyone needs to address, it's not Arab or western its a world problem!

Hareega said...

San Antonio Cicily, just to make it clear Israelis did give anyone contaminated blood, chlamydia is not transmitted by blood tranfusion, only sexually

Anonymous said...

Hareega, judging from your replies, you don't even read comments but instead you proceeded to cliche-dump when you come across certain keywords. Try reading sometimes before you slobber your dimwitted Talking Points allover. I said I don't mind criticism so long as it comes from credible people. Is that simple enough for you? It's a waste of time commenting on your posts because your replies tend to fall in 4-5 patterns.

Hareega said...

Anonymous, I think it's more mature to discuss ideas rather than discussing people. You want to discuss people and I prefer to discuss ideas regardless of the people coming up with those ideas. It's as simple as that. I took your criticism seriously here even though you're identifying yourself with the worst name anyone can have: anonymous.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Hareega for my bad manners. I am a very easy going person 99% of the time. But there are a couple of issues that bring out my dark side. that's US and Israel. Other than that, I am very mellow. really sorry and thanks for being gracious.

Hareega said...

No problem , you're always welcome to comment

Jim said...

Your comment that chlamydia is not transmitted by blood transfusion, only sexually, is most inaccurate. chlamydia, like AIDS, is transmitted when pathogens enter the blood stream. Whether this process occurs via microscopic lesions during intercourse or intravenously is immaterial.

Hareega said...

Jim, I'm not sure what are you basing your statement on. I don't know of any case in the literatire where chalmydia , at least chalmydia trachomatis, being transmitted through blood transfusion. Please let me know if you have any references.

Jim said...

Just because there is no documented case, you can't make a scientifically-sound statement with 100% certainty ruling out infection through contaminated blood. I challenge you to offer any scientific evidence to prove that injecting a patient with a viral or bacterial load will miraculous not lead to an infection regardless whether this virus is the flu virus or chlamydia.

But just to help the readers form an opinion, here is a link to the CDC. it shows that a mother can contaminate her unborn child via her contaminated blood.

http://www.cdc.gov/std/Chlamydia/STDFact-Chlamydia.htm#WhatIs

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761555827/sexually_transmitted_infections.html

Unknown said...

"San Antonio Cicily, just to make it clear Israelis did give anyone contaminated blood, chlamydia is not transmitted by blood tranfusion, only sexually".........I misunderstand your answer did they or did they not give people contaminated blood. I tried to research it but came up with nothing!

Hareega said...

San Antonio, as far as I know they did not. That scandal a decade ago was mainly ISraelis blood banks refusing to accept blood transfusions from Ehtiopian Jews because of concerns that their blood was infected with HIV.

Hareega said...

Jim. When it comes to an organism like Chalmydia trachomatis, you really need to show that it can cause cervicits/urethritis by blood transfusion. If you couldn't that means it's not true. When it comes to HIV, you can inject any mouse or rabbit with the virus and they will get infected. We have thousands of studies that prove that. We don't know only that HIV is transmitted through needles, we can estimate the risk based on the type of needle stick. There's a reason why almost hemophiliacs in the early 1980s got HIV while the majority of very sexually promiscous persons did not contract it, why needle excahnge progems decreases the risk of transmission....etc

the Chlamydia-fetus case report is called a vertical transmission, not a blood-transfusion assocaited transmission. There might be a transfusion-associated one, but I didn't find any, and for it to cause cervicitis, that would be really really interesting!!

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