From time to time there comes to my attention a story that should scare the living Hell out of all those people that frequent the “meat markets” in search of the love of a lifetime….this is just such a story……and Damn!  I am so please to be a old guy and not have to worry about this type of stuff….

As many as one in four U.S. teenage girls have had a sexually transmitted disease (STD), many infected soon after their first sexual encounter, a new government report shows.”The high burden of STDs among teen girls reminds us that we can’t ignore this,” said study author Dr. Sami L. Gottlieb, from the division of sexually transmitted disease prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention.

For the study, Gottlieb’s team collected data on 838 teen girls aged 14 to 19. Using samples provided by the teens, the researchers looked for Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, Trichomonas vaginalis, herpes simplex virus type 2 and human papillomavirus (HPV).

The study authors found 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).

Moreover, in the year after having their first sexual experience and with only one sex partner, 19.2 percent of the teens developed an STD, Gottlieb’s group found.

To counter these problems, teens need to have early sex education, Gottlieb noted. “The vast majority of people have sex for the first time during their teenage years, so we need them to be prepared,” she said.

This study also makes a strong case for routine vaccination against HPV, as it is the most common sexually transmitted infection, Katz said. “Since HPV is often acquired so soon after the initiation of sexual activity, early vaccination is the way to go. I speak on this as the father of two young teenage daughters, both of whom have received the Gardasil vaccine,” he added.

Another report released by the CDC last week provided more statistics.

Teen girls aged 15 to 19 accounted for the largest number (409,531) of the 1.5 million reported chlamydia and gonorrhea cases in the United States in 2008, followed by women aged 20 to 24, according to the annual federal report.

The researchers also found that black females continue to have a higher rate of STDs than any other racial or ethnic group.

Last year, there were about 1.2 million reported cases of chlamydia and nearly 337,000 reported cases of gonorrhea in the United States, according to the report.

Yep…a lot of this type of stuff could be prevented if there were a “real” program of sex ed in schools….but instead most states want to push some damn silly program like abstinence only….which has been a dismal failure from the get go…..so none of the recommendations will be met and the vicious cycles continues….and we have no one to blame but our own stupidity……the time to do something about this lack of knowledge and education is NOW…not after your Johnson falls off and you pee through a plastic tube……