I wonder if we should be stating so definitively that one in four teen girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease.

The finding was released this week at a big STD prevention conference in Chicago. (See the report.)

The Associated Press reports:

A virus that causes cervical cancer is by far the most common sexually transmitted infection in teen girls aged 14 to 19, while the highest overall prevalence is among black girls -- nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD. That rate compared with 20 percent among both whites and Mexican-American teens, the study from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] found.

The study that has been so widely reported nationwide was based on a survey of 838 girls, aged 14 to 19, who took part in a 2003-04 government health survey. The analysis was conducted by CDC researcher Dr. Sara Forhan.

Is 838 a large enough sample to draw national conclusions with the authority that media are stating? Is there no margin of error here? Shouldn't the stats be put in some perspective?
 
Similar stats have been around for years:


The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has STD fact sheets available here.

The Wall Street Journal points out that "STD" may not be as precise a phrase as some think it is. It does not always mean a raging case of herpes. A large percentage of the people who have STDs may not even know it because sometimes the conditions clear up on their own.

The WSJ reports:

The majority of those cases are infections with strains of a virus, human papillomavirus, that are associated with genital warts and cancer. But most people who get infected with HPV never know it, because the virus goes away without causing any health problems. "It is important to realize that most HPV infections clear on their own," noted a summary of the study that the CDC emailed to us.

Indeed, several common infections lumped into the big bin labeled "STD" can have mild or no effects on many patients -- an issue that has prompted some leaders in the field to call for a dialing back of the nomenclature. The home page of the American Social Health Association says:

The concept of "disease," as in STD, implies a clear medical problem, usually some obvious signs or symptoms. But in truth several of the most common [sexually transmitted infections] have no signs or symptoms in the majority of persons infected. Or they have mild signs and symptoms that can be easily overlooked. So the sexually transmitted virus or bacteria can be described as creating "infection," which may or may not result in "disease." This is true of chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes, and human papillomavirus (HPV), to name a few.

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