Stages of HIV and where to get testing in NYC.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a sexually transmitted disease that has killed nearly 20 million people worldwide to date. Since the introduction of antiretroviral drugs in 1987 and the improvements integrated with the HAART technique in 1996 incidents of HIV/AIDS related deaths have gone down significantly. Countries all over the globe are seeing less infections and longer living among the infected. Yet the continued spread of the virus is still disheartening, especially in wealthier countries and cities like NYC that provide affordable HIV screening for men and women who are at risk. Despite the ample resources available that help protect and regulate their sexual health, Americans continue to spread HIV. According the Center for Disease Control, about 56,000 people in United States were infected in 2006.

While the story of HIV’s origins sits uncomfortably amidst the cultural myths, prejudice and some speculative research that attempt to explain it, there is little debate between STD doctors over how it manifests itself. It begins with viral transmission, and, as it worsens, could end in acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Most people acquire the HIV infection through sexual intercourse. Sexually active persons are considered at high risk for transmission if they abstain from using latex condoms, change partners regularly, or have a history of any sexually transmitted diseases. A much smaller percentage of people in recent years have contracted the virus via intravenous drug habits during exchanges of needles with contaminated people. Mothers infected with the virus can also pass on HIV to their infants. Once infected, the virus invades cells within the body and melds with the host’s DNA to multiply and spread through the body. This stage can be marked by high fever and flu systems.

A clinically asymptomatic stage follows typically 6 months after initial infection. Physical examinations show almost no symptoms for HIV during this time, with exception to possible inflamed glands. The lymphoid tissues in the glands filter and confine most of the infection, which lessons the burden on the rest of the body for some time. Studies at STD clinics have shown that patients during this phase have an unusual symmetric balance between HIV replication and HIV destruction, meaning that at this time a person maintains a steady load of the virus.

As the disease worsens the body enters a systematic stage of infection. This occurs for either three reasons:  1. HIV exhausts the lymphoid tissues in the glands, allowing more and more of the virus to escape and populate the body.
2. The HIV undergoes a mutation, becoming stronger and more varied.
3. The body fails to maintain the balance between HIV replication and HIV destruction.
At this stage antiretroviral treatment is administered.

If the retroviral medication succeeds, the body can return to the asymptomatic stage and continue to protect the immune system. However, if it does not work the disease can quickly deteriorate the immune system, making it impossible for the body to fight off common illnesses. Unless the disease slackens, the individual’s immune system will worsen until they are considered to have AIDS.

The sooner one gets the diagnosis for HIV the better chance they have of preventing the formation of AIDS, which has a radically lower mortality rate. This is especially important considering the elongated time one can experience the asymptomatic stage, so it is pivotal that you make an appointment to get HIV Testing NYC at least once a year if you are sexually active. Log onto NYC STD testing to make an appointment at a testing clinic in NYC, or to learn more about what puts you at risk for the disease and what steps you can take to prevent contracting it.

Stop the spread, get tested today.

NYC Ranks Leading Carrier of HIV in the US – New Yorkers: Get Your HIV Test Today

There are more people living with HIV in New York City than in any other state in the country. According to the New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene we have nearly triple the amount of infections compared to the U.S. average, with over 107,000 New Yorkers currently living with HIV.

Considering New York’s city high population density, with over 8 million people living in a land area of only 302 square miles, as compared to Los Angeles, that holds only 3.7 million people in a land area almost 500 square miles, NYC cannot help but carry and spread diseases better and faster than anywhere else in the country. And these statistics don’t even include the 40 million tourists that come through NYC every year! Between the years 2007-2010, HIV was the seventh leading cause of death for New Yorkers between the ages of 25-34, the fourth leading cause for ages between 35-44, and the third leading cause of death for people between 45-54.

So it is essential that you get an HIV testing at least once a year, more often if you exhibit high risk behaviors for the infection. The two main routes for transmission are:

1.       Sexual intercourse – This applies to all types of intercourse, including vaginal, anal and oral sex, with those engaging in anal sex being 20 times more susceptible to the HIV virus when compared with vaginal sex.
If abstinence from sex is clearly out of the question, you can greatly reduce your risk of contracting the virus by being in trustworthy, monogamous relationships. If you do change partners often, you should always use a condom during intercourse to lesson exchange of fluids. Remember, you have the right to insist your partner wears protection.    

2.       Intravenous Drug Use – If you do abuse this kind drug activity, you should never share needles with other drug users. Inject yourself only with clean, sterile syringes to avoid transmission of unwanted viruses. Be “safe” with your drug usage. Drugs and alcohol impair your judgment and can lead to unwanted and unprotected sex.

If you practice any of these high risk behaviors you should get tested at the STD center at least once a year, more often if you practice both of these behaviors. You cannot wait for symptoms of HIV to surface before getting tested. The NY Department of Health notes that its current statistics for HIV positive New Yorkers do not include the nearly thousands of people who do not know they have the infection.  This is because it can take up to six weeks for HIV to “activate” in your body, during which time the virus is still able to infect others you sleep with. Even after the virus activates, many people do not suffer symptoms for months, sometimes years. The NY Department of Health states that every year about 1,000 people in New York City do not discover they have HIV until they are already sick with AIDS. At this point, a person’s ability to fight the disease is reduced significantly. The sooner HIV is diagnosed the sooner medications and therapy can be administered to help you live longer.

Visit this STD Clinics located in midtown to get your HIV Testing in NYC if you live in or nearby the city. Always visit a center that specializes in sexually transmitted diseases. Do not risk your health in the hands of inexperienced doctors. You will also feel more comfortable in an environment that works with HIV patients professionally on a daily basis.

Visit this clinic and work with a staff that understands and respects your need to privacy. Log onto STD test in NYC or call 1-212-696-5900 today.

Catch Chlamydia before it spreads – visit a STD Clinic in NYC

Chlamydia is the most common STD in this country. In 2009 the Center for Disease Control received 1,244,180 reports of cases of it from all across the country. Yet the CDC nearly doubles this number in its estimates of yearly cases by considering the amount of people who do not receive treatment for an infection that many people do not know they have. This is due to the fact that Chlamydia can be asymptomatic, meaning that a large portion of people with it do not suffer from any symptoms. This is why, if you are sexually active, you need to visit an STD Clinic at least once a year to get tested for it, and every 6 months if you change partners often. 

Chlamydia trachomatis is a small bacterium that penetrates your cells within six to eight hours after being injected with it, which could happen during annual, oral and vaginal sex. Acting as a parasite, the bacterium replicates itself within the cell into small elementary bodies, which in about 2-3 days overwhelms the cell causing it to burst and release these new bodies. These in turn infect more cells, which replicate and repeat the process. Thus the bacterium grows exponentially in the body, sending a small herd of itself into another body provided a sexual encounter opens its doors for it. 

All of this could be happening in your body without you even knowing it. Tragic for you, it is also terribly embarrassing if you manage to spread it to someone else. You don’t want that text message telling you to gave Chlamydia testing.

But aside from being embarrassing, left untreated chlamydia can have some devastating repercussions on your body, especially for women:

Cervicitis: This infection is the most common manifestation of chlamydia. And worse yet, of the women that get it more than 50 percent of them suffer no symptoms, which is why it is again important that you invest in STD Testing Center often to get checked for this. When there are symptoms, they include vaginal bleeding in between menstrual cycles, vaginal discharge, and sometimes bleeding directly following sex. Cervictis, untreated, can increase your risk of getting cervical cancer.

Urethra Infection: Cervicitis often leads into chlamydia infection of their urethra.  Usual symptoms are similar to a urinary tract infection.

Perihepatitis: This condition, also known as Fitzhugh-Curtis syndrome, causes an inflammation of the liver capsule and surrounding surfaces. 

Pelvic inflammatory disease: Nearly 30 percent of women who do not treat their chlamydia will develop this disease. This infection inflames the female reproductive organs, and can damage the Fallopian tubes that eggs travel through when leaving the ovary to get to the uterus. These damages pathways can lead to infertility, intense pelvis pain, or what is known as an ectopic pregnancy – when the egg cannot travel all the way through the damaged tube and is thus forced to fertilize where it stands, usually somewhere against the walls of the tubes. These types of pregnancies do not normally survive.  

In already pregnant women, contracting chlamydia can cause premature ruptures of the membrane and dangerously lower the birth weight in delivered babies. Offspring can also inherit their mother’s problems, with 20 to 50 percent of newborns developing conjunctivitis when chlamydia is left untreated in the mother.

Remember, nearly 50 percent of women suffer no symptoms after contracting chlamydia. You must get tested at least once a year if you are sexually active and more often if you have multiple partners or have changed partners recently.

If you live near New York, protect yourself by visiting this STD testing in NYC and get tested. Its doctors will take care to ensure your results are 100 percent accurate, and will cure you if you have a positive  Chlamydia testing in NYC. Your privacy is important, and its staff respects yours. Just log onto STDcenterny.com or call 1-212-696-5900 to protect yourself and others from STDs.  

STD Testing in NYC: The Top Three Reasons to Get it Done!

Undergoing testing for an STD or two is a good idea. It’s a good idea whether you live in NYC or you live in Timbuktu. There’s nothing different about a large city like NYC when you are speaking of things like catching an STD. Many people are under the assumption that the larger cities have faster crowds, but that is not always the case. Suburban and rural areas of the country contain a whole bunch of crazy livin’. The statistics regarding Oxicontin abuse make this crystal clear.

In NYC there are more people. This is a big reason why it seems that the city is riddled by drugs and disease. It’s not. It’s also home to the ballet. So take that—ha! No matter where you happen to live in the United States it is a good idea to get testing done if you engage in any sort of sexual activity. But let’s take a look at the top three questions regarding STI test.

Third Top Question Regarding STDs

What exactly is an STD? Well, this is a great place to start for obvious reasons. An STD is a Sexually Transmitted Disease—and there are over twenty five of them that are recognized across the board by the mainstream medical community. So in order to become infected with an STD one needs to engage in some sort of sexual activity. This does not need to be full-on sexual intercourse, however. Many STDs are passed around through oral and anal sex. From NYC, to the littlest town in Kansas, people are under some mighty false impressions regarding what constitutes an STD. Never forget that good health begins by testing—and once the results are in the healing can begin!

Second Top Question Regarding STDs

How can I tell if I have an STD? Great question because we know that some people walk around all day long in fear of touching an NYC public restroom door handle just in case they pick up some diabolical germs. There are also people on the other end of the spectrum. This type of person can walk around all day long with an ax sticking out of their head and not give it a second thought. Before you run to get testing performed for any STD, checkout this handy list of symptoms to see if you are suffering through any of them today (or yesterday, as symptoms sometime hide themselves away as the disease does its dirty work internally).

Dark or foul smelling urine—Possibly chlamydia, gonorrhea or a urinary tract infection.

Any unnatural secretion from the penis or vagina—Possibly gonorrhea syphilis or Chlamydia.

Pain while urinating—Possibly Chlamydia, UTI, syphilis or gonorrhea.

Bumps, blisters or warts on genital area—Possibly human papillama virus, herpes, scabies or pubic lice.

The Number One Top Question Regarding STDs

How can I avoid catching an STD? The only way to be one hundred percent sure that you will not catch an STD is to NOT have sex. Because this is out of the question for many people, the next best thing is to use condom protection whenever you engage in sexual activity—including oral and anal sex. If you have been engaging in sex and have not yet gone for testing, it is time.

For those of us that live in NYC log onto STD testing in NYC for more information on this pretty cool doctor’s office. They are located just a few blocks from Grand Central Station in Manhattan so getting there is easy by train or bus. They are state of the art, STD clinic very discreet and offer diagnosis and treatment for all STDs. If you’d like to make an appointment, just call 1-212-696-5900. Remember that once the results are in the healing can begin!

The Stigma of Genital Herpes: Testing For HSV 2 in NYC

NYC is the Home of Night, the City That Never Sleeps, the Big Apple, (albeit a tad rotten.) Yes, NYC is all of these things, but it is also a regular everyday big city in the United States. We like to paint ourselves with a wide brush, and many times we are correct in doing so. But other times we are just like every other large city out there. One of those times is when we take a good look at STD rates. NYC is like every other big city, filled with cases of infection. One of the most infamous of all the STDs is HSV 2 (or Herpes Simplex Virus Two, better known as genital herpes.) Still NYC is large enough to offer up many, many different places to receive testing for this bothersome and very anti-social disease.

No matter where you are from, whether NYC or a town in Oklahoma, if you have HSV 2 people tend to know about it. Whether it is quiet murmuring at the back of a bar room or the completely obvious yellow scabbing on your private parts, others will find out. HSV 2 is not a disease that slips by others if you are close to them in any sexual way. The first thing you can do is engage in herpes testing so that you can find out your true status. Only then can the treatment and healing begin.

When people talk about herpes they are usually speaking of two different strains of the same disease. There is HSV 1 and HSV 2. HSV 1 is primarily the strain that causes cold sores on the mouth—which in reality are herpes sores on the mouth. HSV 2, on the other hand, primarily refers to genital herpes, or herpes of the privates. Again, it is only through genital herpes testing nyc that a doctor can figure out what it is you are dealing with and get you all the help you need.

HSV 1 and HSV 2 are both the most commonly reported STDs in America—in NYC they top the list, as well. While not deadly like some other STDs, herpes are a great nuisance to anyone expecting to have a “normal” sex life. The fact is that if you’re in the middle of a break out you must tell your significant other. There’s no other way to play the hand you’ve been dealt unless “Sleezeball” is your middle name. HSV 2— the obviously more intense version of herpes—can be controlled but not cured. Once infected, always infected. But there are medicines that can be taken to help control your flare-ups and the only way you will know if this medicine is for you is if you receive testing to see what it is your status truly is.

HSV 2 test is pretty easy. It’s just a simple blood test. There’s no swabbing, no sticking and no scraping—it’s just the simple drawing of blood. In NYC there lots of places to get testing administered. Any certified STD clinic will be able to do this for you. If you have ever had a sore on your genitals that you were concerned about, testing is for you.

For those of us in NYC, simply log onto STD testing nyc for more info. This well-respected and professional STD clinic is located in the heart of midtown Manhattan and is easily accessible by subway. If you would like to receive testing for HSV 2—or any other STD—simply call 1-212-696-5900 to make a convenient appointment today.

Herpes Treatment in NYC A Bad Side of Living the Good Life

NYC can be the hippest place on Earth—but not if you’re making the scene with a distracting, oozing herpes sores on your lips. People tend to shy away from others who are sporting such unattractive lip blisters. Go figure. However, treatment for a herpes infection has gotten pretty twenty first century these days. There are great new medicines that can keep those embarrassing outbreaks to a minimum.

Let’s face it, you can be the hippest guy or gal in the club, on the job, or at your church but if you haven’t received the proper treatment for your herpes infection, than there’s probably little you can do to become as popular as you would like to be. It doesn’t make a difference whether you live in swinging NYC or tumble-weed filled Oklahoma, something needs to be done for anyone with a herpes infection.

Sexually transmitted diseases—or STDs—come in over twenty five different varieties. Each one has its own specific symptoms, pains, diagnosis and treatment. Some are deadly. Herpes is not. So before you bury your herpes-lipped head in the sand and drop out of your social life, think about visiting a certified herpes testing clinic to receive the treatment that you deserve.

It’s not your fault that you’ve become infected with herpes. It is the most common STD in NYC—and America as a whole. So please stop feeling sorry for yourself and get to that doctor so that you can once again be the life of the party… or at least a guest who doesn’t hide in the corner! Let’s take a look at herpes, what it is and the treatment available…

When people these days speak of herpes they are usually referring to two specific strains of the disease. Herpes is a viral infection, thus once you have it you have it for life. There’s no medicine that can kill these viruses, there’s just medicines that can keep them in check.

When people speak of herpes they are either referring to HSV 1 or HSV 2. HSV 1 is the strain that is commonly called oral herpes (it affects the lips and mouth region), and HSV 2 which is commonly known as genital herpes (it affects the genital region).

Both of these strains can be controlled if you receive treatment. In NYC there are many STD clinics ready to prescribe the proper medicine to reduce outbreaks and severity of outbreaks. It is, however, up to you to gain control over the feelings that you may have regarding the disease and get the help you need. Obviously, if you wind up in a one-on-one special relationship, your significant other will have to hear the truth, but as you face the world on a daily basis, no one has to know a thing.

Treatment is as easy as popping some prescribed pills in order to keep outbreaks from occurring. Once we go through that first outbreak we realize we never want to have it happen again. There are no strict guarantees that you will never have another outbreak, but an STD test will keep those outbreaks as weakened as possible—and you will notice the difference.

NYC is filled with pretty decent certified STD clinics, but if you want to visit the best log onto Herpes treatment NYC website. Located just blocks from Grand Central Station, they are easily accessible by both train and bus. Call 1-212-696-5900 to make an appointment today or ask a question. Remember good health starts with testing and treatment.