Study: 1 In 4 U.S. Teen Girls Has STD

(CBS/AP)  At least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease, or more than 3 million teens, according to the first study of its kind in this age group.

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls - nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

About half of the girls acknowledged ever having sex; among them, the rate was 40 percent. While some teens define sex as only intercourse, other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some infections.

For many, the numbers likely seem "overwhelming because you're talking about nearly half of the sexually experienced teens at any one time having evidence of an STD," said Dr. Margaret Blythe, an adolescent medicine specialist at Indiana University School of Medicine and head of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on adolescence.

But the study highlights what many doctors who treat teens see every day, Blythe said.

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, from 2003-04, likely reflect current rates of infection.

"High STD rates among young women, particularly African-American young women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk," Douglas said.

Experts hope today's report encourages more discussion among teens, parents and doctors, reports CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook.

"This might be a tough conversation for some parents, but this is their kids' health, but also their future health, Dr. Elizabeth Alderman told LaPook.

The CDC's Dr. Kevin Fenton said given that STDs can cause infertility and cervical cancer in women, "screening, vaccination and other prevention strategies for sexually active women are among our highest public health priorities."

The study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally representative data on 838 girls who participated in a 2003-04 government health survey. 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 herpes simplex virus, 2 percent.

Blythe said the results are similar to previous studies examining rates of those diseases individually.

The results were prepared for release Tuesday at a CDC conference in Chicago on preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

HPV can cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. A vaccine targeting several HPV strains recently became available, but Douglas said it likely has not yet had much impact on HPV prevalence rates in teen girls.

Chlamydia is curable with antibiotics. The CDC recommends annual chlamydia screening for all sexually active women under age 25. It also recommends the three-dose HPV vaccine for girls aged 11-12 years, and catch-up shots for females aged 13 to 26.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has similar recommendations.

Douglas said screening tests are underused in part because many teens don't think they're at risk, but also, some doctors mistakenly think, '"Sexually transmitted diseases don't happen to the kinds of patients I see."'

Blythe said some doctors also are reluctant to discuss STDs with teen patients or offer screening because of confidentiality concerns, knowing parents would have to be told of the results.

The American Academy of Pediatrics supports confidential teen screening, she said.

[on_alert247]

The subject of this piece "1 in 4 US teen girls has STD" is grossly misleading. It should be prefaced with "Based on girls who participated in a govt. health survey". So under what circumstances would your daughter participate in such a survey? Perhaps if she was involved in risky behavior, poor, or attended inner city public schools. Not exactly a representative population of all teens.

[epiphanysys]

I don%u2019t get it:%u201Cthey%u201D say,%u201CWe must discuss the need for education on abstinence.%u201D Yet LAUSD has ousted one of the best abstinence educators the district has ever known. Karen Kropf of Positively Waiting (www.PositivelyWaiting.com) has brilliantly illustrated the realities of engaging in *** outside of marriage and has filled in the gaps on the %u201Cfacts%u201D that they%u2019ve been dishing up to our kids over the past decade with sound, well researched data.
She%u2019s reached thousands of students with a powerful message about the advantages of exercising sexual self-control. But NO! %u2013 LA Unified is hell-bent on finding an abstinence message unlawful (even if presented as one component of the comprehensive *** education unit).
Though Karen does not planning on going into the classroom to demonstrate how to slip a condom on a banana (she%u2019ll leave that for the other folks), you can count on her to bring a message, drawn from her own personal experience, of how the choices your kids make today can and will have life-long consequences. But LAUSD won%u2019t have it. I just don%u2019t get it! Don%u2019t we owe it to our children to tell them the whole story? NOT just the mechanics of %u201Ctake this part and put it in here%u2026

[fuggywater]

I do not think the CDC cares AT ALL about the health of Americans. Go to their website. There is not a word about the millions of us uninsured and under-insured Americans.
We have a health insurance policy through Assurant. We pay $360 a month and have a $8,000 deductible. That means we NEVER go to doctors. We cannot afford $80 a pop for a quick visit to a pediatrician. We cannot afford $1,000+ for an emergency room visit, certainly not $3,000 for an MRI.
I want the CDC closed. I want my tax money spent on training new doctors and buying MRI machines until an MRI costs $200 and a 5 minute visit to a doctor costs one time the minimum wage, $6!!!

[jbgallo2]

Future mothers of American talking about their lousy, sick, germ filled *** life. The responsibility is yours to be as clean as possible so that the little life you bring to this world, gets a good start. That''s all! But they talk about giving that life away and other sick solutions. Wild generations without responsibilities and the joy of hiding behind that kind of s###. Go ahead and get yourself a dose of everything that''s out there you selfish b######.

Quarar

[gaye5]

hmmitsannie, well said and I am sorry for your sisters, but what we did years ago is not necessarily wrong, it worked, and of course there were still a few girls who got pregnant, but no law is perfect and some are better than others.. We were definely happier and with less pressures then than now.. All I was scared about was that some girl would wear the same dress as me to the dance, I didnt have to worry about drugs, ***, etc.. we could walk along the beaches, streets etc without fear, so why not want to bring back SOME of yesteryear if it was easier and a better time, it is NOT impossible, but it would take a lot of education and just as we have been manipulated into todays morals so it could be reversed, but of course it wont be!!! not yet anyway, we still have a way to go down yet before people will wake up and say enough is enough, in fact I feel that we are in for a much worse time in regards to crime morals etc than we are having now, as the saying goes, "we aint seen much yet".

[gaye5]

singingrick, well said, and Abstenance only education acturally teaches them what to do and how to do it, under the guise of helping them.. yep sure helps them..and parents have fallen for the manipulation of the people who put this programe out..
As Hitler said, thank goodness for leaders that people dont think..

[hmmitsannie]

ok, first of all..lets stop talking about what we did years ago and start living in Today.We cannot go back and to be honest I would not want to.I have 3 older sisters and 4 older brothers, and come from a VERY religious family.With that being said..one of my sisters was date raped when she was 14.That was in like 1969.She became pregnant and gave the child up for adoption.Another of my sisters decided she was jealous of (sad as it may be) the attention the other got, so she had *** at 15 ..and low and behold got pregnant.She gave that child up.Now..yes my mother discussed the birds and bees with them, but not in the length that it should have been and SHOULD be Now.I am from the same parents and I waited and had 2 beautiful children after marriage(from the same man) and am still married to him.Now I am in the position that I have to discuss *** with my 13 yr old daughter and have at length.I believe they Need to be informed and the decisions they make will inevitably be their own.We can try our hardest to stop them, and warn them, but in the end..they hold the key.Lets help them and give them the Knowledge they need and Pray they make the right, smart, and safe choices.And as far as coming from a family where there are 2 working parents..NO the Tv does not need to be the babysitter, do away with cable..and talk to them about what they are seeing on Tv.

[gaye5]

hypnotoad72, TV is not the blame it is what we allow them to put on it, the morals of the producers are non existant.. it is a ses pit of bad morals and we give them premission to do it by watching it..
Yes it is hard for parents today, and when our kids were young we didnt want someone else to bring up our children so I stayed home even though Teachers pay in NZ was just so much lower than even the low paying jobs, and my husband worked holidays as well.. and yes we went without, we also rented. It meant that I had to undo old jumpers and knit them up and make cloths for the children out of our old cloths, and cut the sheets down the middle when the middle was getting thin and put the out side to the inside. But I was at home bringing up our children and, it was a wonderful time and now our 4 children are all doing exceptionally well, with top jobs and children of their own.

[gaye5]

Baileycc said...
This is the reporting that Big Pharma loves. Scare them into the Doctor''''s Office...

so true Baileycc, the scare for 2008... The bird flu of 2007 which was supposed to kill millions but it only killed 150 people who had close contact with the infected birds, gave the pharmaceutical companies trillions, so this year we have to keep up the profits again.

I can remember when the scare came out about HRT and women stopped taking it, and the pharmaceutical companies said that they had to find something else to keep their profits up. They dont care about the people just profits..

[deesean40]

hypnotoad72 I would Tina song is more satanic and Young People and adults who live by the standards of her song of "Free Lust" are sick. Love is more than laying with everybody you meet and passing diseases around like passing out free candy!