Miami Herald - March 12, 2008
ERIKA BERAS, eberas@miamiherald.com

To those who work with teenage health issues in South Florida, the news of one in four adolescent girls being infected with a sexually transmitted disease is not shocking.

'If you ask any local department of health, anywhere in the country, they will say -- 'Where have you been?' " said Alex Moreno, director of outreach at the University of Miami medical school's division of adolescent medicine.

Sexually transmitted diseases, which if left untreated can cause cervical cancer and infertility, are so prevalent among girls and young women in Miami-Dade County that two years ago, the Health Department waived the fee for STD testing at its clinics for females ages 15 to 24.

"They are the ones we target," Moreno said. "We know this. We see this every day, firsthand."

In Broward, the county Health Department has a sliding scale of fees for STD testing at its teen clinics.

A first-of-its-kind federal study released Tuesday found that at least one in four U.S. teenage girls, or 3.2 million, have a sexually transmitted disease. And for black girls, the number is higher -- one in two were infected.

TOO MANY AT RISK

"What we found was alarming," said Dr. Sara Forhan, a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and the study's lead author. "This means that far too many young women are at risk for the serious health effects of untreated STDs, including infertility and cervical cancer."

The study tested 838 14- to 19-year-old girls during 2003-04 for the four most common infections: human papillomavirus or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer; chlamydia, which can cause infertility; trichomoniasis, and herpes simplex virus. The highest rate of infection was for HPV.

The overall STD rate among the 838 girls was 26 percent, which translates to more than three million girls nationwide. The prevalence among teenage girls may be even higher, because STDs such as syphilis, HIV and gonorrhea were not tested.

The study's authors said limited access to healthcare contributed to the higher rates among black girls. White non-Hispanics and Hispanics had infection rates of one in five.

'ACROSS THE BOARD'

South Florida doctors say, however, the problem cuts across racial and economic spheres.

"I see the girls at Jackson [Memorial Hospital] . . . they are immigrants. Some come from the rape treatment center, some are coming into my private practice," said Dr. Onelia Lage, director of adolescent community health at the UM medical school. "This is across the board."

About half of the girls studied acknowledged having sex. Among those who admitted having sex, the rate was even more disturbing -- 40 percent had an STD.

The CDC recommends that girls and women between ages 11 and 26 be vaccinated against HPV, and that annual chlamydia screenings be done for sexually active women younger than 25.

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