Sexuality and health challenges: responding to a public health imperative

Sexuality is associated with a number of public health imperatives to prevent disease or disability or, if prevention is not possible, to treat and reduce the burden of disease as expeditiously as possible. With the advent of modern testing technology and better sampling of populations, the burden of sexually transmissible infections, sexual assault, and sexual disability have become more apparent. Presented here are U.S. data on the public health dimensions of human sexuality and the evidence for the urgent need to address the magnitude of sexually related public health problems.