View report page

Venereal Disease
Information about this is, as before, incomplete, since a proportion of the London hospitals
undertaking treatment do not submit reports on the number of cases from different boroughs. This
seems a pity, as other hospitals apparently have no difficulty in supplying this information. We
are therefore dependent upon our local clinic for any significant figures we have.

The totals of sexually transmitted diseases treated at the Prince of Wales's Hospital, which remained
relatively static in 1967 and 68, increased by 226 in 1969. It is of interest that the figures for
syphilis and gonorrhoea were about the same, and that the increase occurred under the heading of
other venereal conditions. This is to some extent a vaguely defined group merging into the wider
field of non-venereal infections, but the figure is largely accounted for by non-specific urethritis,
a disease associated with promiscuity; so it can only be assumed that V.D. is continuing to increase
in the borough.
Venereal disease can be so insidious in origin that anyone who has run the risk would be well
advised to seek advice at a V.D. Clinic, where the staff would feel it well worth their while to carry
out a check.
It is always difficult to write about venereal disease, especially if one is a doctor. One is always
liable to be accused of being a spoilsport. This is not necessarily an unfair criticism. It depends
on one's definition of sport. But the greatest problem is over the word "love", and often one wishes
that the English language had as many words to denote its subtle varieties as, say, Greek. Take
the slogan, for example, "Make Love, Not War". Basically, one would not wish to quarrel with it,
but while it is obvious that it is better to love than to kill people, it would be wrong to assume
that we are necessarily dealing with opposites. Love that includes the whole individual, thinking
only of his or her wellbeing, and gladly accepting its consequences, is one of the highest emotions
of which we are capable. But this is not the same as the casual sleeping-around that often passes
for it which deliberately avoids any deep emotional involvement, cynically exposing the other to
the risk of infection, unwanted pregnancy, or the anquish of unrequited love. This kind of "love*
engenders misery and confNct, and has been well described by Ambrose King as the exploitation
of the weaker personality. Those who have to deal with the problems of V.D. Cases, unmarried
mothers and illegitimate children are only too well aware of the wretchedness it can create. It is
merely the substitution of one form of cruelty for another, and indeed bears a striking resemblance to
war in that it is the weak and helpless who invariably come off worst.
67