TIME reports on recent SIECUS paper stating that nearly 50% of all sexually active college students don't use condoms. These low rates of safe sex help explain why 50% of incident STD cases occur among young people ages 15-24. One reason for this trend is a declining emphasis on safe sex education in schools, in part due to budget cuts. Also, teens' assumption that partners are STD free contributes to the problem, as does the pervasive view that sex is less pleasurable with condoms. Katy Steinmetz, the author, highlights a recent Gonorrhea outbreak in Oregon's Lane Country, where complacency is seen as the culprit:
In Oregon’s Lane County, senior health official Patrick Luedtke is in the midst of confronting an ongoing gonorrhea outbreak, with rates jumping as much as 40% in recent years. Like Kann, he believes complacency is a large part of the problem. “People don’t have the fear of death from sex like they had 15 years ago,” he says. “For the teenagers, that fear is gone, and people are not practicing safe sex as much as they used to.”
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