CHICAGO - Startling government research on teenage girls and sexually transmitted diseases sends a blunt message to kids who think they're immune: It's liable to happen to you or someone you know.
In the first study of its kind, researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found at least 1 in 4 teenage American girls has a sexually transmitted disease.
The most common one, HPV, is a virus that can cause cervical cancer, and the second most common, chlamydia, can cause infertility. Nearly half of the Black teens in the study had at least one sexually transmitted infection, versus 20 percent among both Whites and Mexican-American teens.
The study, released Tuesday at an STD prevention conference, has adolescent-health specialists pointing to possible reasons and offering solutions.
Blame is most often placed on inadequate sex education, from parents and from schools focusing too much on abstinence-only programs. Add to that a young person's sense of being invulnerable.
Only about half of the girls in the study acknowledged having sex. Some teens define sex as only intercourse, yet other types of intimate behavior including oral sex can spread some diseases. Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing - 40 percent had an STD.
The overall STD rate among the 838 girls in the study was 26 percent, which translates to more than 3 million girls nationwide, the CDC said.
The study by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan is an analysis of nationally representative data on 838 girls ages 14 to 19 who took part 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 genital herpes, 2 percent.
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 likely reflect current prevalence rates.
HPV can cause genital warts but often has no symptoms. Chlamydia can cause an abnormal discharge and painful urination but often has no symptoms. Signs of trichomoniasis are similar, and both diseases can be treated with antibiotics. Genital herpes can cause blisters but also is often symptomless. It can't be cured but medicine can help.
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