More than one in four US teenage girls is infected with at least one sexually transmitted disease, and the rate is highest among blacks, the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention said.
An estimated 3.2 million US girls ages 14 and 19 - about 26 per cent of that age group - have a sexually transmitted infection such as the human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis, the CDC said.
Forty-eight per cent of black teenage girls were infected, compared to 20 per cent of whites and 20 per cent of Mexican American girls. The report did not give data on the broader US Hispanic population.
"What we found is alarming," the CDC's Dr Sara Forhan, who led the study, said.
"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," Dr Douglas said.
The CDC said the rate of STD infection among US 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."
- Reuters
I wonder what the figures would be if teenage girls insisted on their sexual partners using condoms? "If it's not on, it's not on."!
