With all the crime and terror that is happening across the world, it is sad to note that it is getting increasingly difficult to be shocked by events and statistics read on various news sites; however, I had to take pause today when I saw this headline announcing that one in four teenaged girls in the United States has a sexually transmitted disease. According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, approximately twenty-six percent of girls between the ages of 14 and 19 (over 3 million teenaged girls) is or has been infected with an STD, from herpes to chlamydia to HPV (human papillomavirus).

The results of this study were announced this March at the 2008 National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago, Illinois. To make the situation that much more dire, according to the lead researcher in the study, Sara Forhan, in terms of ethnic breakdowns, almost half of African-American teenaged girls have been or are infected with an STD, in comparison to twenty percent of white teenaged girls. John M. Douglas, Jr., a CDC director for the Division of STD Prevention, states, “High STD 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.” He goes on to say that many of the effects of STDS like cervical cancer or infertility could easily be prevented with proper and early screening and treatment.  The data also reflects that of all sexually transmitted diseases, the two most commonly seen in US girls are chlamydia and HPV.  Because of this, testing for chlamydia each year, especially for those women under the age of 25 who are sexually active is recommended by the CDC. They also strongly urge that all women who are between 11 and 26 years get a full HPV vaccination.

Since effective testing and screening are strongly urged, the National STD Prevention Conference also had much discussion on this as well, including more creative and effective programs that have increased the rates of STD diagnoses. Recently, there was a confidential program to screen for chlamydia in several California clinics. This program was aimed towards those high-school-aged teenagers who sought out STD services and contraception. This resulted in a much higher screening rate (over 85%). In addition, the program was a demonstration of the higher rate of STD infection in African-Americans (just under 10%) compared to that of white women (almost 2%).

Also highlighted at this year’s conference was the push for reproductive health services to also include the much-needed STD screening. One study researched those women who sought emergency contraception and their STD screening rates. Of those women who came in, only 27 % actually got tested for gonorrhea and chlamydia. Almost half of the women who tested for these STDs actually had one of the two STDs. This demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt how any woman coming in for emergency contraception should automatically be screened for STDs since the visit would hint that the woman recently had unprotected sex and, thus, possible exposure to an STD.

Tags : [African American, screening, sexually transmitted disease, STD testing]

I remember being in 5th grade when I really started to understand what HIV was and what an impact it was making on society. Rumors were swirling around on how HIV was actually contracted and fear was at an all-time high with parents across the country withdrawing their children from schools where any other children might be infected with HIV. Ryan White’s name was all over the newspapers and his movie was being made on a national network. In those days, HIV was like a fairly quick death sentence. If you had contracted HIV, chances were that death from complications of AIDS was imminent. In the 21st century, however, the tide seems to have turned.

According to a British study, those patients in developed nations who are inflicted with HIV do not have a greater chance of dying during the first five years after getting infected than the general population. While the chances of dying from HIV/AIDS-related causes do increase after the first five years (for those who were infected with HIV through sexual relations), the study demonstrates how powerful and impacting AIDS drugs can be when available and used consistently and correctly. One thing to note is that the study’s findings, which were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, were not relevant for those patients who contracted HIV through injection with drug usage. Unlike those who contracted HIV sexually, their risk for death was still high for the first five years after being infected.

The head author of the study, Kholoud Porter, an epidemiologist on behalf of Britain’s Medical Research Council, stated, “This is looking really good that life expectancies are becoming close to the uninfected population. It also underscores the importance that people are identified and treated early.” HAART, or highly active antiretroviral therapy, otherwise known as a cocktail of AIDS drugs, is directly responsible for helping those infected with HIV live longer lives, especially in nations that are considered more developed. Even though these HIV/AIDS drug cocktails must be taken for the rest of an infected person’s life, this is a small price to pay to stay healthy and to keep AIDS at bay.

The study encompasses over 13,000 infected males and females and compared the risk of death from the disease with uninfected equally aged males and females living in the same country, during the same time period. The AIDS cocktail of drugs did not become commonplace until the late 1990s. Before this time, the risk of death was anywhere from eight to twenty percent (depending on the age of the infected person). As the cocktail of drugs became more prevalent in developed nations, the risk of death (for the first 5 years after infection) fell to zero percent by the year 2000. As mentioned earlier, the risk for death does being to rise after the initial five years. Some theorize it is because either the patient begins to develop a tolerance for the drug cocktail or the patient unfortunately begins to stop taking his/her drugs on a regular basis.

Tags : [aids, drugs, hiv, prevention sex]