Std

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Half of all young Americans will get a sexually transmitted disease by the age of 25, perhaps because they are ignorant about protection or embarrassed to ask for it, according to several reports.

The reports, issued on Tuesday publicised by two non-profit sexual and youth health groups, said there were 9 million new cases of STD among teens and young adults aged 15 to 24 in 2000.

They said the U.S. government's policy of preferring abstinence-only education would only increase those rates.

"For the 27 million young Americans under the age of 25 who have had sex, the stakes are simply too high to talk only about abstinence," James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, said in a statement.

"Given the prevalence of STDs, young people need all the facts -- including medically accurate information on condoms."

The reports, released jointly by Advocates for Youth -- a non-profit group advocating for sex education, and the sexual health-oriented Alan Guttmacher Institute, pull together information from several different publications.

They include a Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report in the latest issue of the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, and a University of North Carolina report based on interviews with teens and young adults.

"Approximately 18.9 million new cases of STD occurred in 2000, of which 9.1 million (48 percent) were among persons aged 15 to 24," the CDC report reads.

It said three diseases -- human papillomavirus or genital wart virus, a parasitic infection called trichomoniasis and chlamydia -- accounted for 88 percent of all new cases of STDs in 15- to 24-year-olds. Wart virus is the major cause of cervical cancer while chlamydia can cause infertility.

POTENTIAL CAUSES

The CDC report did not comment on potential causes, but the Guttmacher Institute did.

"It is not surprising that teens and young adults contract a disproportionate number of infections," said Guttmacher's Sharon Camp. "Most young people are sexually active, and many are ill equipped to prevent STDs or seek testing and treatment."

She said sex education that includes information on condoms is vital to preventing STDs.

"Although abstaining from sexual activity is guaranteed to prevent STDs, some adolescents and virtually all young adults will eventually choose to have sex," Camp said.

"Before they do, they need realistic sex education that teaches them how to prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancies. It is essential to have medically accurate information about condoms and other contraceptive methods, and guidance on how to access appropriate prevention, testing and treatment services."

Teens 15 and older who have had sex have the highest STD rates of any age group in the country, and the United States has the highest STD rate of any industrialised country, according to CDC and World Health Organisation figures.

The University of North Carolina report attacked federal policies that encourage abstinence-only education.

"Abstinence is, of course, the only 100 percent effective prevention strategy," Shawn Carney, a 17-year-old member of the UNC youth panel, said in a statement.

"But with 70 percent of young people having sex by the age of 18, we need to hear about more than abstinence. We need to know how to prevent STDs when we do have sex later in life."

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040224/325/emux4.html

[Kalvin]

I remember when I was in middle school, for sex ed they preached that abstinence was the best policy. When mentioned that maybe condom machines should be made available in the bathrooms, they'd say that would just encourage teens to hook up.. I think they were just covering their eyes and ears and unwilling to accept the fact that teens will still have sex no matter how many times they were told they should be abstinent. It's like reverse psychology... You tell me not to do something, and I'm more likely to do it just to see why I shouldn't be doing it.

Even today, the subject of sex is still like a taboo in America. How many of those teens who had unprotected sex was because they were embarassed to go buy protection at the drug store because of all the times they were told they shouldn't be having sex? Educators need to open their eyes because the cases of incurable STDs like herpes and HIV will only increase. Everytime someone has sex with someone, they are literally having sex with everyone that person had.

[Fatal070]

yes its true SEX IS BAD

so in all actuality I have had sex with 413,748,985,385 people.......holy cow that explains the weird thing growing on my penis......maybe I'll get it checked.....but I'm too embarrassed....oh well, I'm kinda use to it now....

man that's a bit of reading...but so very true...Many just don't want to get checked out or have another person know there is something actually wrong w/ them...

It's not just people's embarassment and/or reluctance to get tested. Take herpes, for example. It's very difficult to detect without a breakout, and not everybody who has it breaks out often or at all. So you could easily date someone for 5 years, get married, then get herpes from them. HPV, similar thing. Many people who have it don't show symptoms. Not to mention there are 80+ strains of HPV and only something like 8 of them cause cervical cancer and not all of the 80+ strains affect the genital area (all warts are HPV). You can get HPV without any sexual contact at all, just maybe not genital warts.

Considering the germination period of things such as HPV before symptoms are shown, or HIV before it's detectable by a test, there is little wonder of the prevalence of diseases. It's not just that people don't want to get tested and/or are embarassed, some of it is also the elusiveness of them when compared to the general sexual behavior of people.

Although if everybody got tested regularly, even before being sexually active, we'd all be safer and the numbers would be lower. Of course if folks were less promiscuous we'd be safer as well.

b

[IALuder]

i read the first senstence and got bored.

imo i really dont think half will get one. becuase then almost half of the half would die from a it. depending on the disease. but it doesnt surprise that they dont wear protection or get check out for them.