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Sabiana
Veteran Poster
Username: Sabiana
Post Number: 227
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 14, 2008 - 09:55 pm: | 
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Quarter of U.S. teen girls have sex-related disease
Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:26pm EDT
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than one in four U.S. teen girls is infected with at least one sexually transmitted disease, and the rate is highest among blacks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.
An estimated 3.2 million U.S. girls ages 14 and 19 -- about 26 percent of that age group -- have a sexually transmitted infection such as the human papillomavirus or HPV, chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis, the CDC said.
Forty-eight percent of black teen-age girls were infected, compared to 20 percent of whites and 20 percent of Mexican American girls. The report did not give data on the broader U.S. Hispanic population.
"What we found is alarming," the CDC's Dr. Sara Forhan, who led the study, told reporters. "This means that far too many young women are at risk for the serious health effects of untreated STDs, including infertility and cervical cancer."
Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's Division of STD Prevention, said a complex mix of factors is to blame for the higher rates among black girls, including the overall higher presence of sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, in the broader black community.
"Therefore, for any given sex act with any given partner, a person who's not infected has a greater risk of coming into contact with infection and getting infected," Douglas said.
The CDC said the rate of STD infection among U.S. teen girls might be higher than the study indicates because it did not look at syphilis, gonorrhea or HIV infection, but said these generally are uncommon in girls this age.
The CDC said the report, released at a meeting in Chicago, was the first to gauge combined rates of common STDs in female adolescents, giving the best data to date.
MULTIPLE INFECTIONS
Among girls who had an STD, 15 percent had more than one. About half reported ever having had sex, and among those girls, 40 percent had at least one STD. Of girls who had just one lifetime sexual partner, 20 percent had at least one STD.
HPV, which can cause genital warts and cervical cancer, was the most common infection, seen in 18 percent of the girls. The CDC said this indicates teen girls, even those with few lifetime sexual partners, are at high risk for HPV infection.
CDC officials urge girls and women ages 11 to 26 who have not been vaccinated against HPV or who have not completed the full series of shots be fully vaccinated against the virus.
The next most common infection was chlamydia, caused by a bacterium that can damage a woman's reproductive organs. It was seen in 4 percent of the girls. Untreated infection can spread into the uterus or fallopian tubes and cause pelvic inflammatory disease. It also raises risk for infertility.
The CDC urges yearly chlamydia screening for sexually active women under age of 25.
Trichomoniasis, caused by a single-celled parasite, was seen in about 3 percent of the girls. Women with trichomoniasis have vaginal itching and discharge.
About 2 percent of girls were infected with herpes simplex virus type 2, which causes most cases of genital herpes.
The findings were based on data from 838 girls who took part in a nationally representative health survey in 2003 and 2004. They were tested for various STDs.
© Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2781
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2008 - 11:03 am: |
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Sabiana: important report. Especially since it hints at a big--but largely unacknowledged--problem with African AMerican women: infertility and subfertility.
But I admit that when I first read about this report a few days ago, my first thought was: WHere is the companion report about males? Are these young women contracting these STDs from each other? The same one man? Their drinking water? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 11897
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2008 - 01:24 pm: |
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Yeah, it's too bad sterility didn't take a toll on all of these serial baby daddies. |
Sabiana
Veteran Poster
Username: Sabiana
Post Number: 228
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 15, 2008 - 01:27 pm: |
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Exactly. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2782
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 16, 2008 - 10:55 pm: |
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Here's something else I came across about this report:
...The study may have, understandably, focused on girls as opposed to boys because STDs tend to manifest themselves more severely in women than they do men. The study might have been an attempt to bring needed attention and funding to the area of women’s health. The results may have been released in the manner of a press report to trigger awareness and action in medical communities.
However, given that only 838 girls were surveyed in this study, with no further details provided regarding the demographics of this population, drawing broad generalizations about teenage girls based on this study alone is dangerous, and indeed smacks of bias. Women, particularly minority women, have long been unjustly targeted as populations responsible the spread of STDs, and thus populations that must be “controlled”. This flawed theory is only encouraged by selective statistics and headlines such as the one above. Though the numbers may draw attention to the problem of STDs, they do so in a manner that unequally assigns blame. Given that it takes two to tango…
http://blog.bioethics.net/2008/03/about-that-study-of-teens-and-stds/ |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 11910
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 17, 2008 - 12:30 am: |
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So there! |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3065
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 21, 2008 - 03:53 pm: |
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"Yeah, it's too bad sterility didn't take a toll on all of these serial baby daddies."
Good point....... |
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