NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters Health) -- Sexually active teenage girls living in a major US city have an alarmingly high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) -- even those who have had only one sexual partner and are not involved in high-risk behavior, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"The social environment in which they are having sex may be a more important determinant of their risk of STDs than their own behavior," write Dr. Rebecca Bunnell of the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues from there and elsewhere.
The researchers studied STDs in 650 females, aged 14 to19, who attended teen clinics in a large city. Participants were interviewed, given pelvic exams, and tested for STDs. A total of 501 girls returned for a 6-month follow-up, where they were again interviewed and examined.
About 40% of the girls had an STD at the first visit, and 23% were found to have an STD at the follow-up visit. The most common infection was chlamydia, found in over 38% of girls at one or both visits. Almost 17% had herpes simplex virus, and over 8% had gonorrhea. Hepatitis B was found in 0.5%. About half of those with either gonorrhea or trichomoniasis were also infected with chlamydia, the authors note.
About three-quarters of the girls reported having had more than one lifetime partner, with almost one-third reporting more than five. Even among girls with only one partner, however, 30% had an STD at one or both clinic visits, the investigators found.
"For these young, urban American women, the burden of STDs was extremely high," Bunnell and colleagues write in the November issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. They point out that the study group was economically diverse and over half had parents with white-collar jobs. "We should be cautious not to stereotype this group as an inner-city population with few resources," the authors add.
Noting that 87% of the girls with STDs had no symptoms when they came to the clinic, Bunnell and her team emphasize that "frequent screening for STDs is critical for sexually active adolescents," and recommend screening for chlamydia every 6 months.
Citing the high incidence of STDs in girls with only one lifetime partner, the researchers conclude that "it is clear that monogamy practiced by females alone is insufficient for STD prevention," and call for more interventions to reduce the high incidence of disease among adolescents.
