Look What's Going Around (1973)

[Music] you. Hey. Hey. [Music] I don't know. [Music] Those who come here certainly do get nervous and I'd expect that. That's a natural reaction because after all, think about what they're here for. They're uh here for the treatment of what's called a social disease. You a lot of stigma attached unfairly uh to venerial disease and that's part of the problem. Uh but once they're here uh we expect that they are going to be uptight and it's part of our responsibility to try to put them at ease and make them understand what it is that they have and that it's treatable and that we can do a great deal about it. I was very nervous and the doctor said well and I said well I got this um problem and I he says you have a clap. I said oh yeah that's it that's it. And I was treated very well. I really um he was really professional. He gave me some shots, gave me some pills, told me what to do, and I left and I felt, you know, good that someone was taking care of it. Well, when I got the clap, I knew all about it, of course, but I still felt um I kept telling myself, "Oh, everybody gets the clap, you know, everybody gets it. It's all right." But I still felt a little guilty. I think that was what was hard, you know, for me. I still felt bad and I felt like, oh, what kind of people am I, you know, what kind of people am I going out with? But after I went to the clinic and met, you know, talked to them and there were so many other people there that were getting treated for gorrhea, too. And the treatment was so simple and the the whole medical staff was so nice. It really made me feel a lot better about it. Well, there's really no hassle about um treatment today. treatment um in uh these days are really is really quite easy. Um it's easy to come by. Uh the medicines that we use are very effective against the diseases and um so there's no hassle with that at all. The main problem is trying to convince people to come for treatment. We get a lot of people who come in here but of course there are a lot of people who are outside who don't present themselves. Of course, treatment isn't all there is to the disease. We have to make people aware of what the disease is all about. We have to make them understand the nature of the bug that they're getting infected with. Uh they have to understand, for instance, that this is a bug that cannot live outside of the body or be or live if it's exposed to air. This is a bug that is transmitted by bodytobody contact or sexual contact and uh is uh passed on that way. and it's passed on very very rapidly. A number of people can become infected in no time at all. First time I got it, I got it from a young lady and spread it to two others. Then I wound up sitting up in the in the clinic with all three of those young ladies mad at me, you know, but I forced them down here and uh next thing I knew then we had got pretty close to about 50 people, you know, just from a chain reaction of those three ladies. Chain reaction is a good term to describe how the disease gets around so rapidly. One person gets the disease, then passes it on to another person, and that person may infect two or three other individuals. And in no time at all, you have a large number of people who have the disease. Mothers can also transmit it to their babies. A lot of the people who are involved in this chain reaction will get cured, but there are a lot of people who won't. And the reason that they won't is because they don't develop symptoms. And since they don't have symptoms, they don't know that they have the disease, they don't come in for treatment and they infect other people. And so the chain reaction continues and the problem gets larger. And that's one of the biggest problems that we have in VD control. No, I didn't have any symptoms at all. None whatsoever. Then he started getting symptoms, but I didn't I still didn't have any. So I thought, well, maybe I didn't have them and I didn't have to go to the clinic. I didn't I didn't have any symptoms till about 5 days after I you know I came in contact with the infected girl. But even even when I did start getting symptoms, I I wasn't sure they were symptoms of venerial disease. And I you know I I wanted to think that it was just you know kidney infection infection of something else and not a venerial disease but uh until that time you know there weren't any symptoms at all and then they were very slight. Then when he got symptoms, he went to the clinic and they said he had it. But I still didn't think I had it because I didn't have any symptoms. But he made me go to the clinic to get checked, too. In my case, it was the opposite. I'd only been making love to one man. And I started getting kind of little cramps in my side. And I'd had about a year before I'd had a non-specific infection in my tubes. And it almost felt like that. So I thought that I went back to the doctor and he told me that I had gorrhea. And then I told my boyfriend and he he said, "No, there's no way I could have it because I don't have any symptoms." And he went to the clinic and he did have it. And then a girl, if everyone that had an aerial disease knew they had it, they'd come into the clinic on their own. They wouldn't need any prompting. But the trouble is most people don't know how to recognize the symptoms of an aerial disease. And and a great number of people don't have any symptoms. They don't know they're out there spreading the disease around. Men when they get gorrhea usually know it fairly quickly. They usually have a [ __ ] discharge coming out of the penis and a burning on urination that they're very aware of and so they usually come in right away. They're beginning to detect more occasional cases of men with gorrhea that do not have symptoms. Now women with gorrhea is a completely different problem. the location of the infection being farther up inside a woman and she can't doesn't have the pain involved and doesn't have the discharge involved. So, she doesn't know she has it unless she's told. There also is a problem with rectal and oral gorrhea. People don't realize they can become infected in those locations. They don't recognize the problem and they don't know that that's what's the matter with them. The initial symptom a person gets when they have syphilis is usually a sore, an open sore that is usually located on the genitals. It's usually not painful, so they often don't think it's anything serious. With a female, the lesion can be located on the external genitalia, and she may have a chance to notice it that way. But if it's located inside the vagina, since it is painless, you will almost always not know it's there unless a doctor looks for it. This soul will go away by itself without treatment. Later on, a person can develop many types of other symptoms. A rash that a person thinks is caused by the heat or the patient just may not feel well, think they've got the flu, headaches. It's very easy to think that there is something else the matter with you. And those symptoms will go away as well without treatment. But the disease is still inside the body destroying the the body even though there are no outside symptoms. Remember there, just because you've had a veneeral disease once doesn't mean you're immune. You can get it again and again. And there's no vaccine that you can take that'll prevent you from coming down with it. You have to be aware that you can go right back out there and pick this disease up again from those people that are out there that don't know that they're giving it to you. Those people that are out there that don't know they have it are out there spreading it around. But those that don't know they have it have got to be informed that they have that there's a chance that they have a venerial disease. Anybody that you had contact with before you knew you had it more or less you should tell them about it so they can get treated or find out whether or not if they have it or not. You know, I didn't I I was afraid to do it. You know, I thought she'd be mad, but like I figured if I didn't, she was I figured she was already infected, so there was no use in me getting treated and her being infected cuz next time we had any kind of a relationship, I would be infected again. Well, for myself, getting it treated is not as I don't know. I think maybe what's hard is it's always hard to tell someone that you've given it to. You know, it's very hard to pick up the phone and, you know, tell them, well, I'm sorry, but I gave you, you know, the clap or I realize that people are embarrassed to to have to tell their sex contacts that they have a venerial disease, and they're probably also just as embarrassed to have to come in here and talk to me and tell me who they're having sex with so I can tell them. Now, there's no need for you to be nervous, and anything that you say will not go beyond this room. Now, who was the last person you had contact with? Well, a lot of people don't know they have this disease. You were lucky to have symptoms and to come in and and know that there was something wrong with you. Most people that have this disease do not know they have it. They wouldn't have symptoms. When you consider the consequences, it's much better that these people be told than not told. uh you can't take the responsibility of not letting these people know and usually in the long run they're very grateful that they have been allowed to be informed of the situation. Of course, treatment is the crux of our attack upon VD. That means treatment for you and also treatment for your sexual contacts. Now, it would be much better if we could keep you from getting the disease in the first place. And the easiest way to do that would be if you didn't have sexual contact at all. But if you are going to have sex, then the best thing to do is to try to limit the number of contacts that you have and also to try to have some idea about the health of the partners that you're going to engage in sex with. Now, it's very hard to be sure who has it and who doesn't. And so it's important to start thinking about some preventive techniques that you can use to try to keep yourself from getting the disease. Some guys just don't like to use rubbers for one reason or another. I come into problems when uh using some sort of like prophylactic sort of impedes my style. And usually the I get into most difficulty I guess DD-wise is with my you know my sort of fly by night relationships. If you think of yourself more or less, you would use a palatic the first time after you know or every time you feel as though that you know you're especially the first time because I mean especially if you don't know the person that well or is one of those quick things you know the condom or the rubber as it's commonly called uh can help prevent you from getting VD if you use it properly and only if you use it correctly and uh this is particularly true in the case of gorrhea before you in rolling it very far though, pull up a little pouch at the end, unless you have the type that already has a pouch there. Squeeze it a little bit and then continue rolling it down the shaft until it completely covers the shaft of the penis. Now, once you have it in place, it's important for you to bear in mind that it has to stay there. And it's a good idea to check every once in a while that it is on. And I want to demonstrate now how you take it off. It's important for you to use both hands when you do this. Just grasp it at the sides, pull it out, and pull it off. Just like that. Now, after all of this is finished, you should wash your hands and wash your genitals. And if you observe these simple methods in using the condom and following that with proper hygienic method, I think you go a long way towards preventing yourself and also your mate from having VD. She has the right to demand that he use a rubber, you know, cuz that's part of being a female, you know. She wants to protect herself, protect herself, not only from DD, but from getting pregnant, you know, and just like I have the right to say to my woman that I don't like using rubber because it's like taking a shower with a raincoat. you know, she has the right to say use a rubber, you know, and if you really dig each other, then you'll take the soul and the time to get it together and come across some kind of compromise as to some type of birth control and some type of prevention of PD, you know, that's right. If she demands a rubber, then you know, if you want to keep her or you know, if you really dig So, what are the things that um you can do to try to control the VD problem? Number one, be aware of what's happening with the disease. Two, try to keep from getting it. And if you do happen to get it, go get treated. And also make sure that the people that you have come into contact with also get treated. But as long as VD is around, you're going to have to be concerned and worried. And you're going to have to be cautious. [Music]