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mouse
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
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 Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:59 pm Post subject: Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls |
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| Quote: | March 12, 2008
Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases, federal health officials reported Tuesday.
Nearly half the African-Americans in the study of teenagers ages 14 to 19 were infected with at least one of the diseases monitored in the study — human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes and trichomoniasis, a common parasite.
The 50 percent figure compared with 20 percent of white teenagers, health officials and researchers said at a news conference at a scientific meeting in Chicago.
The two most common sexually transmitted diseases, or S.T.D.’s, among all the participants tested were HPV, at 18 percent, and chlamydia, at 4 percent, according to the analysis, part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Each disease can be serious in its own way. HPV, for example, can cause cancer and genital warts.
Among the infected women, 15 percent had more than one of the diseases.
Women may be unaware they are infected. But the diseases, which are infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites, can produce acute symptoms like irritating vaginal discharge, painful pelvic inflammatory disease and potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy. The infections can also lead to longterm ailments like infertility and cervical cancer.
The survey tested for specific HPV strains linked to genital warts and cervical cancer.
Officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the findings underscored the need to strengthen screening, vaccination and other prevention measures for the diseases, which are among the highest public health priorities.
About 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year among all age groups in the United States.
“High S.T.D. infection rates among young women, particularly young African-American women, are clear signs that we must continue developing ways to reach those most at risk,” said Dr. John M. Douglas Jr., who directs the centers’ division of S.T.D. prevention.
The president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards, said the new findings “emphasize the need for real comprehensive sex education.”
“The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure,” Ms. Richards said, “and teenage girls are paying the real price.”
Although earlier annual surveys have 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 women 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 center through state and local health departments.
“What we found is alarming,” said Dr. Sara Forhan, a researcher at the centers and the lead author of the study.
Dr. Forhan added that the study showed “how fast the S.T.D. prevalence appears.”
“Far too many young women are at risk for the serious health effects of untreated S.T.D.’s, ” she said.
The centers conducts the annual study, which asks a representative sample of the household population a wide range of health questions. The analysis was based on information collected in the 2003-4 survey.
Extrapolating from the findings, Dr. Forhan said 3.2 million teenage women were infected with at least one of the four diseases.
The 838 participants in the study were chosen at random with standard statistical techniques. Of the women asked, 96 percent agreed to submit vaginal swabs for testing.
The findings and specific treatment recommendations were available to the participants calling a password-protected telephone line. Three reminders were sent to participants who did not call.
Health officials recommend treatment for all sex partners of individuals diagnosed with curable sexually transmitted diseases. One promising approach to reach that goal is for doctors who treat infected women to provide or prescribe the same treatment for their partners, Dr. Douglas said. The goal is to encourage men who may not have a physician or who have no symptoms and may be reluctant to seek care to be treated without a doctor’s visit.
He also urged infected women to be retested three months after treatment to detect possible reinfection and to treat it.
Dr. Forhan said she did not know how many participants received their test results.
Federal health officials recommend annual screening tests to detect chlamydia for sexually active women younger than 25. The disease agency also recommends that women ages 11 to 26 be fully vaccinated against HPV.
The Food and Drug Administration has said in a report that latex condoms are “highly effective” at preventing infection by chlamydia, trichomoniasis, H.I.V., gonorrhea and hepatitis B.
The agency noted that condoms seemed less effective against genital herpes and syphilis. Protection against human papillomavirus “is partial at best,” the report said. |
sample size is a bit buried - only 838 - but if it was genuinely randomly selected, the results are quite alarming. this article doesn't do much speculating on the cause - more sexual activity? less health care (and thus checking for diseases)? i got distracted from the article in my local paper - there was some speculation there on just ignorance - so a lot of girls said they hadn't been sexually active, but apparently they were thinking only of vaginal sex - which suggests they weren't aware that stds can be transmitted by other sorts of contact.
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Pontupo
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:14 pm Post subject: Re: Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls |
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HPV, though potentially serious, often has no overt symptoms of any kind. I've heard some some sort of statistic on it before...
From Wikipedia:
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Genital HPV infection is very common, with estimates suggesting that more than 50% of women will become infected with one or more of the sexually transmitted HPV types at some point during adulthood. The American Social Health Association reported estimates that about 75% of sexually active Americans will be infected with HPV at some point in their lifetime. |
75% will get it at one point or another. 3/4 of the people who comment in this thread will get it at some point... and some 25% of them probably have it now =)
Scary stuff... but I think it's worth noting that it's often not any worse for you than a flu virus that never shows symptoms and you just carry. |
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Mizike
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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Silver lining: HPV Vaccine will make this number lower 20 years from now.
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"It is laudable to know something, it is disgraceful to not want to learn"
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TIAB
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm sorry, I got hung up on the mention of HPV as an STD, without seeing mention that it can infect people by other means(in the article). Admittedly, I skipped over the rest of the article, but does anyone know if they considered this when evaluating their results? |
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mouse
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:09 pm Post subject: Re: Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls |
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| Pontupo wrote: | | Scary stuff... but I think it's worth noting that it's often not any worse for you than a flu virus that never shows symptoms and you just carry. |
well, except for the women who get cervical cancer from it.....
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mouse
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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| TIAB wrote: | | I'm sorry, I got hung up on the mention of HPV as an STD, without seeing mention that it can infect people by other means(in the article). Admittedly, I skipped over the rest of the article, but does anyone know if they considered this when evaluating their results? |
i'm not seeing where they say it can be transmitted by other means than sexual contact. _i_ said i'd seen another article where (i think) about half of the girls survey said they hadn't had sex, but the impression i carried away was that the girls meant vaginal sex. there are, of course, other sorts of sexual contact, which also can spread stds.
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Dogen
Joined: 10 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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I think the solution is clear: more abstinence only education! There's far too much diddlin' goin' around!
... seriously, though, we need to get clear about sexual health in this country instead of treating it like a dirty secret. Real sex education, access to health care and the de-stigmatization of female sexuality would go a long way helping people prevent STDs and STIs. |
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Willem
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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In a small-scale, unprofessional survey held at our school by two people from my class (Oh yes, very trustworthy), it turned out that 2% of my year and 2% from the fourth year had come in contact with an STD. That's 2 people. Guessing who it was, was hilarious. Because we knew, damnit.
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Pontupo
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| mouse wrote: |
i'm not seeing where they say it can be transmitted by other means than sexual contact. _i_ said i'd seen another article where (i think) about half of the girls survey said they hadn't had sex, but the impression i carried away was that the girls meant vaginal sex. there are, of course, other sorts of sexual contact, which also can spread stds. |
It can be transmitted by physical contact of any kind, potentially: Wikipedia Article (it's in the second paragraph: "skin-to-skin contact")
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well, except for the women who get cervical cancer from it.....
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I didn't say it wasn't ever horrible... in fact, I think that wiki article states that HPV is a necessary factor in almost all cases of cervical cancer. Still, in most cases: no result, cancerous or otherwise. I'm not saying this to suggest we shouldn't be concerned about it, but rather to point out that if you find out, for instance, that your significant other is infected with HPV, it's not worth the same degree of panic as, say, HIV. Not good, but could be worse sort of thing. *shrug*
EDIT: Maybe I should just put this out there: my significant other found out about a year ago that she had HPV. We didn't (and still don't) know which of us "brought it" into the relationship since both of us had other sexual partners in the recent past. She was really quite upset for a while about it. Naturally, it also meant that I probably had/have it as well (no genital warts and same with her, but thanks for asking  ). One of the hardest things about it, and this applies to dogen's post as well:
| dogen wrote: |
... seriously, though, we need to get clear about sexual health in this country instead of treating it like a dirty secret. Real sex education, access to health care and the de-stigmatization of female sexuality would go a long way helping people prevent STDs and STIs. |
is that HPV, because it can be passed by skin-to-skin contact, isn't necessarily stopped by a condom. Both my significant other and I always practiced safe sex and neither of us has any other STDs. Further, there is no test for it for men, so I have no way of knowing if I'm infected or not -and- there's some evidence that it "goes away" over time. My significant other no longer tests positive for HPV.
It's all rather frustrating, because even education is only so effective against HPV. If you have sex with multiple partners throughout your life, even if you always practice safe sex, if you do any of the nasty (and fun!!) little bits that often lead up to/follow/replace actual intercourse, you're putting yourself at risk. This is one virus where abstinence really is your friend. Of course... my girl and I occasionally indulge nonetheless.
To be fair to dogen's statement, though, education does go a long way. Biggest thing you can do to prevent HPV from being a problem: regular exams for cervical cancer (assuming your female). As they say... the more you know... =)
Last edited by Pontupo on Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:26 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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mouse
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:25 pm Post subject: |
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true. but you will agree that discovering that 25% of teenaged girls have it, and probably don't know it, is potentially a problem? particularly if the reason they have it is because they were never taught about safe sex?
the issue is really not how bad a disease it is. the issue is, they shouldn't have these diseases at all, and definitely not in these numbers.
tiab - does it say what the relative transmission rate skin-to-skin is, vs. say, mouth-to-mouth?
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Pontupo
Joined: 07 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| mouse wrote: | true. but you will agree that discovering that 25% of teenaged girls have it, and probably don't know it, is potentially a problem? particularly if the reason they have it is because they were never taught about safe sex?
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Absolutely. I have my doubts on how many teenagers don't know about safe sex, though. I'm sure much more than 75% of them do, though they may choose not to practice it. I seem to recall having done some fairly stupid things when I was a teenager. Actually, who am I kidding... I've done some pretty stupid things recently. =/ |
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Mizike
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:11 am Post subject: |
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Sadly, I think 75% grossly overestimates the number of adolescents (let us say those currently 18-12) know about safe sex practices. I had a friend who would give speeches to frats and sororities about safe sex and routinely got questions (seeking assurance) about "double-bagging it" and pulling out.
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"It is laudable to know something, it is disgraceful to not want to learn"
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mouse
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:02 am Post subject: |
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yeah, don't know how old you are, pontupo - but the proliferation of abstinence-only sex ed has substantially reduced the knowledge levels in the youthful population (while apparently blinding the adult population to the fact).
one thing - i wish they gave some info on the age of the teens in this study.
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Pontupo
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:20 am Post subject: |
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It's possible that I'm just oblivious to the fact because when I was a teenager I knew about safe sex. I mean... it's not that complicated. You simply don't have sex without a condom and there are directions on the box (including warnings about not using multiple ones). Truth be told, though, I don't really remember where I learned that. Could have been my parents, teachers, friends... not sure. I definitely had a sex ed. class when I was in high school at some point which included fairly open discussions about topics like sex, STDs and pregnancy, but I have the feeling it was in late high school and after I'd already had sex for the first time (without protection, no less =/).
I guess I just think that stupidity and lack of foresight is to blame more than lack of information. You're totally right that I could be being naive or uninformed, though. |
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Sam
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 2:00 am Post subject: |
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| mouse wrote: | | the proliferation of abstinence-only sex ed has substantially reduced the knowledge levels in the youthful population (while apparently blinding the adult population to the fact). |
States (or parts of states) which went fully down the abstinence-only sex education route are really feeling the repercussions and the process is dying out as a result, but yeah. Plenty of damage has been done.
There are a number of regions in America which were given federal funding reliant upon district compliance with an abstinence only sex-ed policy — read: if they teach about contraceptives, they lose their money for running a sexual education program entirely — and the end result has been that these districts have levels of undesired teenage pregnancy and STD rates which are grossly higher than the kids of other, similar districts who got a comprehensive sex-ed program in schools.
Abstinence only sex education is noteworthy only for how impressively ineffectual it is: when they tested it against the results of comprehensive sex education systems, they found that the STD rates and unintended pregnancies of the students in the AO group were just as bad as found in control groups which recieved no sex education at all.
The part I know you like is that these findings were the result of a study commissioned by the Bush administration to drum up scientific support for their AO program. When they got the results back, they quietly tried to bury it, and other more indie studies ended up concluding the same thing. |
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