The capital of STD
The Villages 確實是非常大的退休社區,範圍覆蓋了比曼哈頓更大的區域,橫跨佛羅裏達州的三個縣——Sumter、Marion和Lake。
這個話題實際上在媒體和社會上流傳了很多年了,我是一直不了解這個情況,是前幾年從我們公司做 GYN 病理的同事這裏才知道的。
我的專業是皮膚病理,做GYN 病理的那幾個同事有時候會收到女性外陰部皮膚的活檢標本,如果她們碰到覺得吃不準有點難度的 cases 就會把切片拿到我辦公室讓我看一下,谘詢我的病理診斷意見。有一次我說這個應該就是 condyloma (是 HPV 引起的外陰部性病,中文叫尖銳濕疣),然後這個同事就笑了一下,說這個標本是 The Villages 那邊的,這個診斷不奇怪。我當時不太明白她的意思,她就跟我解釋說那個地方的 STD 情況是有名的,她們 GYN 病理組收到的子宮頸塗片(Papsmear) 中有 HPV 引起的變化的比例相當高。我後來去網上查了一下,果然發現很多這方麵的報道,包括有相當知名度的全國性大報。
但是也有不少文章是澄清這種說法,比如這篇文章裏麵說:
Is it true?
Residents of The Villages are, of course, sexually active, said Dr. Marivic Villa, an internist who runs a health clinic in the retirement community.
Many of her patients come seeking testosterone therapy to improve their sex lives. All of them are tested for sexually transmitted diseases.
“In reality, I don’t see much STDs,” said Villa, who has worked in The Villages almost two decades. “Compared to other practitioners, I should. People just want to paint the picture that old people here are like young people in New Orleans.
“I’m not saying that they’re not thinking about having sex,” she added. “They do — a lot — but not to the point that there’s STDs left and right and all over the place.”
Compared to Florida overall, however, the three counties containing The Villages tended to have significantly lower (STD)rates.
Sumter County had one of the lowest rates of sexually transmitted diseases among older adults in 2019 —with about one in 10,000. That’s compared to six in 10,000 seniors statewide. Marion and Lake bore similar trends. The same patterns emerged for diagnoses of human immunodeficiency virus, also known as HIV, among Florida’s older adults.
At the county-by-county level, The Villages similarly fared better than most.
Spread of sexually transmitted diseases among older adults in Florida tended to be higher in counties with major cities and large Black and Latino populations, state data suggest, such as Hillsborough, Miami-Dade and Broward counties. People of color, LGBTQ people and women experience disproportionately high rates of sexually transmitted diseases due to social determinants of health that are more likely to impact marginalized groups.
In The Villages, 86% of seniors are white, according to U.S. Census data. And the percentage of older adults living in poverty is slightly lower than the national rate, suggesting its retirees may have better access to health care than the country as a whole.
再看看另外一篇文章(2014年的)的大標題的翻譯:
The Villages 擁有55歲以上的10萬居民,可能是美國發展最快的城市。對於想要度過黃金歲月的嬰兒潮一代來說,這是一個臭名昭著的繁榮小鎮,他們可以享受上午11點的快樂時光、數千項活動和無拘無束的性愛,所有這些都被一個難以捉摸的億萬富翁所統治。