Sexually transmitted disease

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A sexually transmitted disease is a disease which generally spreads by sexual intercourse, including oral sex or anal sex. "Sexually transmitted disease" is usually written as STD for short. STDs can also be called sexually transmitted infections (STIs), or venereal diseases (VD). It is more accurate to call sexually transmitted diseases sexually transmissible diseases. This is because some of them spread in other ways, too. For example, you can get HIV from using a hypodermic needle that someone else already used, if that other person has HIV.

There are two ways that sex can send a disease from one person to another person:

• Because sex uses parts of the body that have very thin skin, it is possible to get small rips by accident when you have sex. Some STDs can get into your body through a rip like that.
• Some STDs can enter the body through openings that are already there, like the urethra or vagina.