The prevention and control of STDs is based on the following five major concepts:
- Education and counseling of persons at risk on ways to adopt safer sexual behavior
- Identification of infected persons--with or without symptoms--unlikely to seek diagnostic and treatment services
- Effective diagnosis and treatment of infected persons
- Evaluation, treatment, and counseling of sex partners of persons who are infected with an STD
- Pre-exposure vaccination of persons at risk for vaccine-preventable STDs
Primary prevention of STDs begins with changing the sexual behaviors that place persons at risk for infection.4 Moreover, because STD control activities reduce the likelihood of transmission to sex partners, treatment of infected persons constitutes primary prevention of spread within the community.
To enact its strategy, CDC is assisting health departments, healthcare providers, and nongovernmental organizations, and collaborating with other governmental entities, through:
- The development, syntheses, translation, and dissemination of timely, science-based information
- The development of national goals and science-based policy
- The development and support of science-based programs that meet the needs of communities
As the lead agency for STD prevention in the United States, CDC will continue to improve both biomedical and behavioral strategies to combat STDs. Clearly, multiple strategies are required to maintain and improve progress in prevention
