At least one in four teenage American girls has a sexually
transmitted disease, suggests a first-of-its-kind federal study
that startled some adolescent-health experts.
Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having
sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of
intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases.
Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more
disturbing — 40 percent had an STD.
"This is pretty shocking," said Dr. Elizabeth Alderman, an
adolescent medicine specialist at Montefiore
Medical Center's Children's Hospital in New
York.
"To talk about abstinence is not a bad thing," but teen girls —
and boys too — need to be informed about how to protect themselves
if they do have sex, Alderman said.
The overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26
percent, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide,
researchers with the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. They
released the results Tuesday at an STD prevention conference in
Chicago.
"Those numbers are certainly alarming," said sex education
expert Nora Gelperin, who works with a teen-written Web site called
sexetc.org. She said they
reflect "the sad state of sex education in our country."
"Sexuality is still a very taboo subject in our society," she
said. "Teens tell us that they can't make decisions in the dark and
that adults aren't properly preparing them to make responsible
decisions."
Cecile Richards, president of Planned
Parenthood Federation of America, said the study shows that
"the national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a
$1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real
price."
Similar claims were made last year when the government announced
the teen birth rate rose between 2005 and 2006, the first increase
in 15 years.
The new study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan relied on slightly older
data. It is an analysis of nationally representative records on
girls ages 14 to 19 who participated in a 2003-04 government health
survey.
The teens were tested for four infections: human papillomavirus,
or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of
girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis,
2.5 percent; and genital herpes, 2 percent.
Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD
prevention, said the results are the first to examine the combined
national prevalence of common sexually transmitted diseases among
adolescent girls. He said the data, now a few years old, likely
reflect current prevalence rates.
Disease rates were significantly higher among black girls —
nearly half had at least one STD, versus 20 percent among both
whites and Mexican-Americans.
HPV, the cancer-causing virus, can also cause genital warts but
often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting several HPV strains
recently became available, but Douglas said it probably hasn't yet
had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in teen girls.
The CDC recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls ages
11-12 and catch-up shots for ages 13-26.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080311/ap_on_he_me/teen_stds
