Sexual HealthWhere The Most Private Becomes Public: Policy Making For Sexual Health
It is time to realign research and policy making to promote better sexual
health for all, according to the latest editorial from the PLoS Medicine
team. Sexual health problems arise from curable and incurable sexually
transmitted infections, lack of access to contraceptives, lack of access
to
services and unsafe abortion, and occur at the intersection of health,
culture, religion and politics. Curable sexually transmitted infections
such as
gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis, cause a significant
burden of disease in both high and low income countries.
As the editors
say,
"there are 19 million new cases of STDs each year in the United States, at
an estimated cost of US$15.9 billion annually to the US health care
system". Unmet contraceptive needs and unsafe sex both figure in the top
20 risk factors for mortality and burden of disease and have been included
in PLoS Medicine"s recently announced priority areas for publication. The
editors call for political and religious leaders to redouble their efforts
to realign research and policy making to promote better sexual health for
all, and provide the support that is necessary to enable medical research
to
fulfill its role in promoting sexual health.
Funding: The authors are each paid a salary by the Public Library of
Science, and they wrote this editorial during their salaried time.
Citation:
"Where the Most Private Becomes Public: Policy Making for Sexual Health."
The PLoS Medicine Editors (2009)
PLoS Med 6(5): e1000082. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000082
Plos Medicine