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March 11, 2008
The Public Impact of 'Private' Immorality
More than one in four U.S. teen girls is infected with at least one
sexually transmitted disease. Note that some sexually transmitted infections can cause infertility and cancer. Ironically, health "professionals" speculate that abstinence education is to blame.
Others point to more obvious factors.
"Current public health policies are clearly failing to reduce the spread of STDs among young women," stated Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America. "Pushing kids to be sexually active, withholding medical screenings to deny parents information about their teens, and encouraging young women to skip screenings for STDs are irresponsible policies that have put teens' health at risk." Others point to more obvious factors.
"Public health officials need to admit their failures that have led to kids paying the price. Funding irresponsible sex-ed programs, ones that encourage kids to be sexually active, twelve times higher than funding abstinence programs unsurprisingly results in more kids being sexually active. Experts note that a key prevention strategy is screening for STDs. Yet by making the morning-after pill available without a prescription, officials are discouraging young women from seeing a doctor when they are at risk of an STD."
According to the CDC, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 18–49 years residing in households in the United States was 0.47% for the period 1999–2006. Although it is easily treated, Chlamydia remains the most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States. In 2006, 1,030,911 chlamydia diagnoses were reported, up from 976,445 in 2005. Even so, most chlamydia cases go undiagnosed. It is estimated that there are approximately 2.8 million new cases of chlamydia in the United States each year.
The national rate of reported chlamydia in 2006 was 347.8 cases per 100,000 population, an increase of 5.6 percent from 2005. The rate of reported chlamydia per 100,000 black females (1,760.9) was more than seven times that of white females (237.0) Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, with 358,366 cases reported in 2006. Following a 74 percent decline in the rate of reported gonorrhea from 1975 through 1997, overall gonorrhea rates plateaued, then increased for the past two years.
The rate of primary and secondary (P&S) syphilis — the most infectious stages of the disease — decreased throughout the 1990s, and in 2000 reached an all-time low. However, over the past six years, the syphilis rate in the United States has been increasing. Between 2005 and 2006, the national P&S syphilis rate increased 13.8 percent, from 2.9 to 3.3 cases per 100,000 population, and the number of cases increased from 8,724 to 9,756.
The national rate of reported chlamydia in 2006 was 347.8 cases per 100,000 population, an increase of 5.6 percent from 2005. The rate of reported chlamydia per 100,000 black females (1,760.9) was more than seven times that of white females (237.0) Gonorrhea is the second most commonly reported infectious disease in the United States, with 358,366 cases reported in 2006. Following a 74 percent decline in the rate of reported gonorrhea from 1975 through 1997, overall gonorrhea rates plateaued, then increased for the past two years.
The rate of primary and secondary (P&S) syphilis — the most infectious stages of the disease — decreased throughout the 1990s, and in 2000 reached an all-time low. However, over the past six years, the syphilis rate in the United States has been increasing. Between 2005 and 2006, the national P&S syphilis rate increased 13.8 percent, from 2.9 to 3.3 cases per 100,000 population, and the number of cases increased from 8,724 to 9,756.
Posted by Vital at March 11, 2008 7:27 PM
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