Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Red. White and Itchy

America- home of the free, land of the.......herpes? Results from a study released yesterday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that one in four American girls between the ages of 14-19 is infected with an STD. That's right, attend a women's basketball game at any high school in the U.S. and odds are, if the center doesn't have chlamydia, the guard's battling gonnorhea.

While it's true the survey's limited sample size (only 838 girls participated) and narrow scope (it only recorded the prevalence of the four most common STD's: HPV, chlamydia, herpes, and trichomoniasis) dampen the startling numbers, the core findings are impressive.

Over 3 million American adolescent females are infected. For females who reported being sexually active ( more than one partner) the results are even more shocking: A full 40 percent have at least one STD, many thousands have more than one.

Along with the new raw data has come a desperate search for answers. Why the explosion in the rates of STD's? Why, in 2006, did the number of teen pregnancies see its first jump in over 15 years? The effect isn't limited to females- males are feeling the burn also, with the CDC reporting an increase in their rates of STD's also.

Who's to blame? Is it the media, saturating our impressionable youth with sexually provocative images and smiling, promiscuous characters? Or, as many have argued, is it the manner of sexual education in our schools. The Bush Administration has flushed more than $1.5 billion into abstinence-only sex-ed programs, teaching youth about the dangers of sex and the importance of remaining pure.

The problem with this philosophy is that for so many hormone-swelled teenagers, keeping it in their pants isn't a practical option. The cultural taboo against casual sex is very much still in place, but damn Betty looks good. And, as evidenced by the surging rate of STD infections, America's youth isn't staying in to play monopoly or watch scary movies. Teens will be teens, and sex is an inevitability. STDs, however, aren't. By educating our adolescents on safe-sex practices and preventative techniques, the disturbing trend can be stopped.

1 comment:

P said...

If we tell teenager to not have sex, they obviously aren't mature enough to listen? On the other hand, if we tell them to always use condoms and birth control pills, they are mature enough to listen? There seems to be a strange inconsistency here.