Feds: One in four teenage girls have an STD

"The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four are infected with at least one of the diseases, federal health officials reported Tuesday." (Source: "Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenage Girls," NY Times, March 12, 2008.) "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--human papillomavirus (HPV), chlamydia, genital herpes and trichomoniasis, a common parasite. The 50% figure compared with 20% of white teenagers . . . The two most common sexually transmitted diseases, or S.T.D.’s, among all the participants tested were HPV, at 18 percent, and chlamydia, at 4 percent, according to the analysis, part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey."