In fact, these were the only venereal diseases that even the Public Health people generally talked about in the 1940s. Condoms were well hidden behind the drug store counter, especially in heavily Catholic New Haven, and especially to young boys who were just learning to shave. We talked a lot about sex, but we didn't do much. In fact, we didn't do anything. In that respect, at least, those were pretty innocent days.
Nobody talks very much about syphilis or gonorrhea anymore.
But the numbers reported are not to be believed. The CDC estimates that the actual number of sexually transmitted diseases is much greater than the number reported. In 1944, penicillin, a simple excretory product of a common mold, was introduced into the realm of medical therapy. Indeed, it has imposing credentials, imposing enough, perhaps, to warrant the optimistic predictions that the introduction of this drug would issue in a new era of antibiotic therapy, cleansing the world of many of the worst diseases known. In the 1940s, penicillin was magnificently effective against many bacterial diseases, including syphilis and gonorrhea.