One in four teenage girls may test positive for an STD.

Moral of the story: STDs are still very prevalent

Source: AMA Morning Rounds 11/24/09

One in four teenage girls may test positive for an STD.

HealthDay (11/23, Reinberg) reported, "As many as one in four US teenage girls have had a sexually transmitted disease (STD)," according to a CDC study published in Pediatrics. Investigators tested "838 teen girls aged 14 to 19" for "Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, herpes simplex virus type 2, and human papillomavirus (HPV)." They eventually discovered that "24.1 percent of the girls had one of these STDs, and among girls who were sexually experienced, 37.7 percent had an STD. HPV was the most common infection (18.3 percent), followed by chlamydia (3.9 percent)."

The "most concerning" aspect of the findings, however, was "how soon these sexually transmitted infections appeared after teenage girls began engaging in sexual activity," according to WebMD (11/23, Warner). "The study showed that within one year of initiating sexual activity, 19.2% of teen girls had an STI."