One in four teenage girls in US have STDs
ABOUT one in four teenage girls in the United States - and nearly half of black girls - have at least one sexually transmitted disease, according to a new study.
Those numbers translate into an estimated 3.2 million adolescent females infected with one of the four most common sexually transmitted diseases. Many of them may not even know they have a disease or that they are passing it to their sex partners.
"What we found is alarming," said Sara Forhan, a researcher with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the study's lead author. "This means that far too many young women are at risk for the serious health effects of untreated STDs."
The study analysed data on 838 girls aged between 14 and 19 who participated in the 2003-04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an annual study that assesses a broad range of health issues. The teens were tested for human papillomavirus, chlamydia, trichomoniasis and herpes. By far the most common was human papillomavirus. Of those infected, 15 per cent had more than one.
The diseases, which are infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites, can produce acute symptoms such as irritating vaginal discharge, painful pelvic inflammatory disease and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy. The infections also can lead to infertility and cervical cancer.
The overall figures could be slightly higher, because other sexually transmitted diseases - syphilis, HIV and gonorrhoea - were not included in the study, although experts say the prevalence is low for those infections among adolescents. The study did not include teenage boys.
The paper was presented this week at a conference in Chicago.
Dr Forhan said she was surprised how readily the risk to young women appeared. Of those who said they had had one sexual partner, the prevalence of STDs was 20 per cent.
John Douglas, the director of the centres' division of STD prevention, said the report highlighted "extraordinary racial disparities". Blacks made up 13 per cent of the population, but made up 46 per cent of the chlamydia cases, for example.
The higher rates could be because of limited access to health care, which may result in delays in seeking care or in fewer visits to doctors for screening, he said. The president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards, said the findings emphasised the need for comprehensive sex education. "The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $US1.5 billion [$1.63 billion] failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price."
Although earlier surveys had tested for a single sexually transmitted disease in a specified population, this is the first time the national study has collected data on all the most common sexual diseases in adolescent females at the same time. It is also the first time the study measured human papillomavirus.
Dr Douglas said that because the new survey was based on direct testing, it was more reliable than analyses derived from data that doctors and clinics sent to the diseases centre through state and local health departments.
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