STDs in the Honorverse

I repeat that STDs are relatively hard to catch compared to most infections. They require close physical contact, preferably wet and abraded skin.
Influenza can be caught by touching a doorknob, or breathing in a sneeze. The plague, and many others can be transmitted by insects.
Sure in a different context STDs are easy to catch by unprotected sex, but they need that mechanism. The British navy used to say that only Admirals and Chaplains could get the clap from a toilet seat.

Daryl wrote:I repeat that STDs are relatively hard to catch compared to most infections. They require close physical contact, preferably wet and abraded skin.
Influenza can be caught by touching a doorknob, or breathing in a sneeze. The plague, and many others can be transmitted by insects.
Sure in a different context STDs are easy to catch by unprotected sex, but they need that mechanism. The British navy used to say that only Admirals and Chaplains could get the clap from a toilet seat.

I know a judge in Oregon who believed his philandering wife when she told him that the case of Syphallus that pennicillin can't cure which has taken a toll on his brain is merely something that he must have picked up from a toilet seat at the courthouse. He kept on believing her until she got herself suspended by the Oregon State Bar Association for committing perjury that she had been having an affair with a subordinate at the US attorney's office. Seems he also figured out that he hadn't suffered a vasectomy failure too.

Daryl wrote:I repeat that STDs are relatively hard to catch compared to most infections. They require close physical contact, preferably wet and abraded skin.
Influenza can be caught by touching a doorknob, or breathing in a sneeze. The plague, and many others can be transmitted by insects.
Sure in a different context STDs are easy to catch by unprotected sex, but they need that mechanism. The British navy used to say that only Admirals and Chaplains could get the clap from a toilet seat.

This is why anal sex is taboo in most cultures and monogamy is the nominal normal.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:

Daryl wrote:I repeat that STDs are relatively hard to catch compared to most infections. They require close physical contact, preferably wet and abraded skin.
Influenza can be caught by touching a doorknob, or breathing in a sneeze. The plague, and many others can be transmitted by insects.
Sure in a different context STDs are easy to catch by unprotected sex, but they need that mechanism. The British navy used to say that only Admirals and Chaplains could get the clap from a toilet seat.

This is why anal sex is taboo in most cultures and monogamy is the nominal normal.

Much of this is nonsense. Monogamy was the norm before people were aware of the transmission of STD's.

Anal sex is not all that uncommon in many cultures. Victorian England with its insistence on the more disgusting elements of sex figured heavily in off[putting anal sex. And, of course, male homosexuals used it for millenia.

Daryl wrote:I repeat that STDs are relatively hard to catch compared to most infections. They require close physical contact, preferably wet and abraded skin.
Influenza can be caught by touching a doorknob, or breathing in a sneeze. The plague, and many others can be transmitted by insects.
Sure in a different context STDs are easy to catch by unprotected sex, but they need that mechanism. The British navy used to say that only Admirals and Chaplains could get the clap from a toilet seat.

Why would you want to compare the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases to most diseases? What you should be asking yourself is "How easy is it to catch sexually transmitted diseases through the mechanism of having sex?" It isn't like the average woman is concerned with getting pregnant by a doorknob or by someone touching her.

I'm sorry but you are repeating wrongly. STDs DO NOT require abraded skin. They don't even require close physical contact. If you're a kinky SOB like those found in the League and you're into golden showers, that's enough of a vector if the peer is a hot zone. What other mechanism should you be considering for a sexually transmitted disease . . . other than sex — and sexually transmitted diseases?

Oh and, well, crabs - though not as serious - can be caught from a toilet seat.

STDs only require the timely exchange of infectious bodily fluids - with the exception of HIV, which require infectious bodily fluids and broken skin.

We are obviously talking at cross purposes. You can catch most common diseases by having sex with an infected person, but STDs require sex by any of a variety of ways.
Skin in most cases doesn't need to be abraded, but that helps. Anal sex obviously increases the risk. As Stephen Fry pointed out many gay males don't practice sodomy.

Daryl wrote:We are obviously talking at cross purposes. You can catch most common diseases by having sex with an infected person, but STDs require sex by any of a variety of ways.
Skin in most cases doesn't need to be abraded, but that helps. Anal sex obviously increases the risk. As Stephen Fry pointed out many gay males don't practice sodomy.

STDs are not as easily transmitted as the flu. You generally do have to have sex to contract an STD. However; humans are sexually active. Unless they are monogamous, STDs are very infectious .

ldwechsler wrote:

TFLYTSNBN wrote:


This is why anal sex is taboo in most cultures and monogamy is the nominal normal.

Much of this is nonsense. Monogamy was the norm before people were aware of the transmission of STD's.

Anal sex is not all that uncommon in many cultures. Victorian England with its insistence on the more disgusting elements of sex figured heavily in off[putting anal sex. And, of course, male homosexuals used it for millenia.

The ancient s did not understand germ theory but their taboos leave no doubt that they understood what was risky behavior.

TFLYTSNBN wrote:The ancient s did not understand germ theory but their taboos leave no doubt that they understood what was risky behavior.

You don't have to have a theory of gravity to know that falling a long distance is bad.

I've argued the missing human element on this forum for years. I refuse to let anyone ignore it on this issue for your own good. I feel a little kinship with many of you, we've argued enough with each other over the years that I feel we can talk, we can at least be frank on this matter. LOL

I wouldn't be too aggressive in pushing the notion that sexually transmitted diseases actually require sex, or that an STD cannot be caught off of a toilet seat. What the medical profession tells us is that the virus can only survive on its own for a short time, therefore it is unlikely that someone will contract it. In addition, even if the virus survives, our sexual organs has to come into contant with the seat and that does not usually happen.

BUT! If you're at a drunken frat party, some pervert could be masturbating in the bathroom and then ejaculates all over the commode. Or, he could be pissy drunk and sitting on the commode when his penis is full-on discharging green radioactive ooze all over the seat . . .

"Hey, what are you doing in there? I've got to go badly."

"Sorry, it's all yours."

"Hurry, hurry! . . . Oh darn, what did I just sit in?"

If the woman is drunk when sitting and is right on target . . .

What the medical profession fails to tell you is that the conditions that need to come to pass for it to happen are unlikely, thus they don't suspect any danger. Well, they're not considering a drunken frat party of friends and perverts. A woman normally does what a friend of mine refers to as "the hover" when using public restrooms. But in a drunken state, the hover can turn into a full-on sit and smear. Get the message?

I've attended many a drunken party at many universities. Can't pee on my head and tell me it's raining.