Sexually transmitted diseases are just passed from one person to another through sexual contact but many children have suffered this.
Lately, the Dermatology Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City has admitted a 6-year-old girl from the southern province of Binh Phuoc who experienced pain when urinating and fever. Tests have shown she had Gonorrhea. Before, a 18 year old boy in District 7, HCMC had genital herpes transmitted by his father.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Tho, deputy head of the trial clinic department of the hospital said that it regularly received to treat children with sexually transmitted diseases because their mothers infected their babies during childbirth.
However, many teenagers admitted to have voluntary sexual intercourse. For instance, a 15 year old boy hailing from the Mekong delta province of Dong Thap was positive for syphilis bacteria. The boy admitted to have unprotected homosexual contact with an unknown on the Internet.
Dr. Thanh Tho fretted about involvement in romantic activities amongst mature male and female adolescents and rise of sexual criminals triggering more patients with sexually transmitted diseases.
While technology has changed the way in which teens interact and access information, they remain a vulnerable population when it comes to sexual risk.
However, many are not completely informed about sex and sexually transmitted infections; therefore, they don’t know they have sexually transmitted infections. Worse, they go to illegal medical clinics for treatment resulting in serious infections, said Dr. Tho.
According to the Dermatology Hospital’s statistics in 2015, the hospital provided treatment for 28 children with sexually transmitted diseases but in 2018, the number of children with sexually transmitted infections was 85.
In 11 months of 2019 alone, 146 children got sexually transmitted diseases in the hospital. There has been an alarming rise of sexually transmitted diseases amongst children.
Medical workers advised that women should go to hospital for checking before deciding to have baby and undergo tests during pregnancy.
Parents should teach their children under 10 to avoid strangers and not allow other people to touch their body especial private parts in the body.
