Blacks Cannot 'Afford To Ignore' Disparities In STI Rates, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 07 Apr 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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A recent CDC study that found 48% of black U.S. girls and young women ages 14 to 19 have at least one of four common sexually transmitted infections, compared with 20% of white and Hispanic teens, is "[s]adly" not a "new trend," Yolanda Young, host of the video blog spadeproject.com, writes in a USA Today opinion piece. Reasons for the disparities in STI rates include the fact that many blacks are uninsured; "[s]exuality of teens starts earlier and earlier, heightened by music lyrics and images on television"; and STIs are more highly "concentrated in poor, segregated neighborhoods," Young writes.

Greater emphasis should be placed on STI screening, treatment, vaccinations and contraceptive services, according to Young. Although teens should take CDC's advice of either sexual abstinence, or "habitual condom use" and sex with an "uninfected monogamous partner," advice "isn't enough," Young writes, concluding that "one thing we should all agree on is that this is an issue that blacks can't afford to ignore. We need more talking and less doing" (Young, USA Today, 4/4).

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