cern. “This incidence has been associated with the use of crack cocaine and the related practice of sex in exchange for drugs” (Campbell 18). Young black women in urban areas are the most prevalent in these sex and drugs exchanges. “Crack users often have coexisting untreated STDs, particularly genital ulceration, which heighten vulnerability to HIV infection” (Campbell 14). The rate of STD infection, including syphilis and gonorrhea, among ten to nineteen year old girls is three to four time higher than the rate among ten to nineteen year old boys. However, the males that are over twenty years of age are at a higher rate than females over twenty years of age. This shows that women that are infected with STD had male partners who are older. Another practice of the female gender that increases the rate of STD transmission is prostitution. A great concern has overwhelmed Americans about female prostitution because the prostitutes could infect their customers who could infect their wives or girlfriends. “Women most often enter prostitution because of poverty” (Campbell 74). However, by virtue of their profession, they must depend on men as their economic support, which has cause great concern of sexual exploitation. Women also carry a vital role of caregiving of their children. For instance, a woman infected with syphilis can pass it on to her unborn child, which is called congenital syphilis. “About twenty-five percent of infected fetuses die inside the mother’s body” (Brodman, Thacker, and Kranz 44). Many children that survive develop symptoms of the third stage of syphilis between seven and fifteen years of age. An infected pregnant woman with gonorrhea may infect her baby as the baby passes through the birth canal. When the baby comes in contact with the gonorrhea, the baby might go blind. On the other hand, “Women in general are more likely than men to ca...
