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Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Growing Problem
According to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of all
high school students have engaged in sexual intercourse. Not
surprisingly, sexually transmitted diseases are a growing problem
among teenagers—three million teens are infected with an STD each
year. Although AIDS often gets the most attention, other STDs are
considerably more common among teenagers, in particular gonorrhea.
Gonorrhea, which is marked by a pus-like discharge from the cervix or
penis, can be treated with penicillin or other antibiotics. If left
untreated, the infection can spread into the testicles, causing
sterility, or into the uterus and Fallopian tubes, leading to pelvic
inflammatory disease. Gonorrhea can also infect the pharynx, or the
upper part of the throat.
In its "Trends
in STDs in the United States, 2000" the CDC reports that the incidence
of gonorrhea among women is greatest between the ages of 15 and 19. In
1999, approximately 198 out of every 100,000 white females in that age
group were infected. For African American women of that age, the ratio
was 3,691 per 100,000. The rates for white males and African American
males in that age group were approximately 116 and 3,582 per 100,000,
respectively. Although those rates are considerably lower than in the
mid-1980s, they are a 13 percent increase from 1997.
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One reason why
gonorrhea remains one of the most common STDs among teenagers is a lack of
awareness about the disease. Although 58 percent of teenagers in 1999
used condorns during intercourse, compared to 46 percent in 1991, teens
are not wholly aware of how the disease can be transmitted. In an article
in
USA Today,
Karen S. Peterson writes that many teenagers
are unaware of the health risks of oral sex, such as the possibility of
contracting gonorrhea of the pharynx.
The extent of
sexually transmitted diseases, whether among adolescents or adults,
remains a matter of debate. In the following chapter, the authors explore
whether STDs are a serious problem or if the dangers are overstated.
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