STD Week: 10 TV Characters Who Had STDs

In the season 3 episode "Are We Sluts?", Miranda discovers she has chlamydia. Naturally, she ends up having to call up all her past partners; eventually, she finds out that she got it from “the angry guy” she dated in an earlier season. He found out he had it, but he never called her about it because she had told him never to call her again. One would wish he would have had better judgment...

David's little incident actually happened off screen. When the show came back from a break, David's introduction to the episode caught us up with what had been going on during the summer months-- which apparently included him getting a nice case of crabs. Fun in the sun? Maybe not.

The unfortunate Xander crashes through the ground during the groundbreaking ceremony for UC Sunnydale's new Anthropology building, because he's Xander, and those things just happen. Unfortunately for him, his epic crash disturbed a Native American spirit who is mightily pissed off at his peoples' plight. Xander, subsequently, develops not only syphilis, but also malaria and smallpox-- likely visited upon him by the Chumash spirit. Also, it's Thanksgiving. Woop-de-doo.

During season two, Christian finds out that his ex, Gina, is HIV positive, so like so many others on this, he does the responsible thing and calls up all his past partners. Luckily, he ends up being negative himself; Gina's son Wilber, as well as Wilber's dad James, also test negative. Good that they considered that it can be passed on to kids, too.

SPOILER ALERT: Veronica discovers during the second season that she has chlamydia, though she has no idea how it could have happened-- unless it was connected to her as-yet-unsolved rape. In the season finale, she finds out that Cassidy "Beaver" Casablancas did in fact rape, despite having denied it previously, and that he passed on the chlamydia he himself had contracted when he was molested as a small child to her. Tragedy all round.

George got syphilis from Olivia, who got it from Alex. I guess hospitals really ARE like giant petri dishes.

On MTV's remake of the British show Skins, Michelle discovers her boyfriend Tony was cheating on her via the worst possible means: Her doctor informs her that she has chlamydia. Since she hasn't slept with anyone else, she rapidly deduces that a) it must have come from Tony, and that b) if that's the case, he must have had sex with someone else. Or several someones. Ouch.

Back in a storyline during the '90s, street kid Stone started dating longtime GH character Robin. He wisely got himself tested for HIV before they had sex for the first time-- a test which came back negative-- but later on down the line, he got tested again, and this time, the results were positive. To complicate matters, between those two tests, he and Robin had stopped using protection-- bad idea. Like Stone, Robin initially tested negative, but a later test came back positive. Stone developed AIDS, and in 1995, he died. A tragic tale indeed.

When Sam is going through his evil phase in season 5, a witch gives him gonorrhea as a gift. The best part? He gives it to him by clapping three times at him. Yep: Sam gets the clap from a clap. Nice.

In the March 2011 episode "A Cheesy Situation," Snooki, Ronnie, and Sammi prank the Sitch by hiding cheese in his bed before he brings home yet another hookup. As he and his hookup start getting busy, he realizes something smells a little odd, but naturally, he doesn't let that deter him. He talks about the smell with his housemates the next day, and the three culprits are quick to point out that he may have been exposed to an STD. He claims he's safe because he didn't have full-on sex, but JWow pulls the rug out from under him when she calls up a doctor, who confirms that STDs can be transmitted through "oral pleasure." Though the Situation just has a pretty bad scare, I'm honestly just having a hard time understanding how he's managed to get this far without knowing that STDs can be transmitted orally.