A Dastardly Doubling... of Pleasure?

Image by Vox Efx on Flickr

Two important rates have doubled lately: home foreclosures and STDs. We've all been inundated with information about the housing crisis, but we didn't realize there was a herpes crisis as well. Are people having reckless sex to console themselves about their home foreclosures? Probably not; the research for the STD study found rates doubled in 2003, before our metaphorical mortgage walls began to come crashing down. Genital warts accounted for almost half of the STD cases in the UK-based study, while herpes, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis rates also skyrocketed. On the housing front, foreclosure deeds (the final part of the process) are up, while foreclosure petitions are down. The latter stat is affected by recent legislation requiring a 90-day waiting period before foreclosures go to court. If the two stats were connected, we'd propose that a doubling in pregnancies might be next--but Gloucester's already on its way to accomplishing that.