Editorials Respond To CDC Study Finding 25% Of Girls, Women Ages 14 To 19 Have Common STIs

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 18 Mar 2008 - 9:00 PST

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Several newspapers recently published editorials responding to a CDC study released last week that found 25% of girls and young women ages 14 to 19 have at least one of four common sexually transmitted infections. The study was drawn from a sample of 838 girls who participated in CDC's 2003-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. When extrapolated to the general population, CDC estimates that 3.2 million teenage girls have at least one of four STIs -- chlamydia, herpes simplex virus 2, human papillomavirus or the common parasite trichomoniasis. Among African-American adolescents in the study, almost half were infected.

About 18% of the girls were infected with HPV, 4% were infected with chlamydia, 2.5% had trichomoniasis and 1.9% had herpes simplex 2. About half of the girls surveyed acknowledged having sex. Among this group, 40% had at least one of the four infections. Among adolescents who reported having had one sex partner, the rate of STIs was 20%. Of the participants who had an STI, 15% had more than one infection (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/12).

Summaries appear below.

• Chicago Sun-Times: Although the study called on schools to increase sex education, parents should counter "misinformation" on sexual health "by explaining how to prevent [STIs] and pregnancy," as well as talking about birth control and what to expect from a pelvic exam and Pap test, a Sun-Times editorial says. The editorial adds that parents should give their teenagers' physicians permission to keep discussions about sexual health confidential to give teens a "safe place to open up about what's really going on (or not) in his or her sex life" (Chicago Sun-Times, 3/16).
  
  
• Contra Costa Times: Public health officials nationwide "must launch an aggressive public advertising campaign warning of the risk" of STIs, a Times editorial says. The editorial concludes that teenagers' "lives may depend" on "access to sex education in school" and "candid conversations" with their parents about the risk of STIs (Contra Costa Times, 3/17).
  
  
• Detroit Free Press: It is "flat out irresponsible" to tell teens to "just say no" to sex because "they just don't," a Free Press editorial says, adding that the "rising" STI rate is a "public health crisis." All teenage girls "need access to fact-filled sex education" to ensure that they have a "realistic understanding of the consequences" of sexual activity, according to the Free Press (Detroit Free Press, 3/17).
  
  
• New York Times: It will "not be easy for sexually active teenagers to avoid" an STI, a Times editorial says, adding that the findings "strengthen the case for providing HPV vaccine to young girls and for regular screening of sexually active girls to detect infection." The editorial adds there is a "clear need to strengthen programs in sex education," concluding that sexually active teenagers "need to understand that the numbers are against them and that a serious infection is but a careless sexual encounter away" (New York Times, 3/17).
  
  
• Richmond Times-Dispatch: The study "likely will increase support for mandatory vaccination against HPV," a Times-Dispatch editorial says. Conservatives, who advocate for abstinence-only sex education programs, and liberals, who advocate for comprehensive sex education programs, "would be wise to think about the issue by asking what they would want to do to protect a girl, or young woman," against STIs, the editorial adds (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 3/17).
  

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