Sexally Transmitted Diseases and Girls

The first national study of sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four are infected with one of the diseases. Nearly half the African-Americans in the study of teenagers ages 14 to 19 were infected with at least one of the diseases monitored in the study. The diseases looked at where humanpapillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes, and trichomoniasis. The 50 percent figure compared with 20 percent of white teenagers, health officials and researchers said at a news conference at a scientific meeting in Chicago. The two most common sexually transmitted diseases, or S.T.D.’s, among all the participants tested were HPV and chlamydia, at 4 cent, according to the analysis, part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Each disease can be serious in its own way. HPV, for example, can cause cancer an genital warts. Among the infected women, 15 percent had more than one of the diseases.Most women are unaware they are infected.

About 19 million new sexually transmitted infections occur each year among all age groups in the United States. This is the first time the national study has collected data on all the most common sexual diseases in adolescent women at the same time. It is also the first time the study measured human papillomavirus.