Men using drugs for sexual potency prescription show almost three times higher incidence rate of STDs compared with those not taking such medications found a study at Harvard University. The study does not apply to people receiving food supplements for the same purpose, allowed for free sale.
The results obtained in the analysis of claims to health insurance than men aged 40 and older. Research conducted of men using Viagra Pfizer Company and of Cialis Eli Lilly & Co. was published in the journal "Annals of Internal Medicine" on July 6, 2010
Higher rate of infection was observed in the year before and after the men start taking prescription, according to the analysis. This shows that users of drugs to treat erectile dysfunction, including Levitra, and the company Bayer AG, may be more likely to practice risk sex than other men, according to study author Anupam Jena.
On June 29 in a telephone interview Jena said: "Young people have more sexual partners than older people." Anupam Jena is a specialist in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. "But sexual measure the actual risk is higher among older people, as they often do not use condoms, "he said.
Each year in the U.S. occurred about 19 million new sexually transmitted infections and almost half of them were among people aged 15-24, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of Disease.
AIDS in middle-aged people
However, in people aged 40-49 account for the largest share of newly diagnosed HIV / AIDS cases - 27 per cent in 2007 people aged 50-59 these cases represent 13%, while those aged over 60 are 4 %.
"Older people can transmit the disease through sexual contact and we should treat with attention to this fact," said Jena.
Researchers analyzed claims to the health insurance system for sexually transmitted diseases in 44 large U.S. employers for the period from 1997 (one year before Viagra to be launched) to 2006 have been addressed to men over 40 years age to determine whether they are or have been prescribed drugs to treat erectile dysfunction. The study found that in 2006, 3.6% of men have used Viagra, 1.7% - Cialis and 1 percent drank Levitra.
Sexual behavior of patients remains unknown
The authors could not determine how the men were married and how many were heterosexual. And did not have any other information about their sexual behavior. In the year before to start using drugs for erectile dysfunction they had known of the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, 214 of 100 000 people, the study found. This means 2.8 times greater risk of sexually transmitted infection than men who do not drink Viagra and Cialis! Next year the risk decreased slightly to 2.65 times higher risk in those taking medication.
The risk of disease of AIDS was 3.19 times higher in patients taking drugs for better erection. Higher was the risk for infection with chlamydia.
Seeking treatment
The incidence of disease of AIDS may seem higher than that of infection with other infections, because men have sought medical attention for symptoms of AIDS such as fever and weight loss with your doctor, says Jena, while other sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes and gonorrhea are looking for specialized help directly in free clinics that do not report the data on health insurance.
Editorial accompanying the research article, entitled "Life begins at forty," urged doctors to advise older patients to remember the precautions for safe sex if they want them to prescribe drugs to treat erectile dysfunction.
"Consultation on safe sex should not stop at age 40," says the editorial, written by Thomas Fekete, professor of medicine at the University "Temple" in Philadelphia.
Nicole Ostrou, Bloomberg
07/06/2010
Translated with minor cuts
