I came across this interesting post today at The Nation about the disturbing news from several weeks back that nearly 25% of teen girls have an STD. The author of the Nation piece asks for a re-framing of the issue: rather than behave shocked and horrified (we must do something! save the girls!) about the infection rates, we need to look at where these diseases are coming from (um, if 25% of teen girls are infected, what percentage of teen boys are?! The study did not look at male teens.) She links STD infection rates and incarceration rates in communities.
A personal rant about troubling media coverage: The Wall Street Journal downplayed the study's significance quoting a source as saying the high rate was because "it's just HPV and it will probably clear on its own." For nearly every woman I know who has dealt with HPV in one of its many forms, it does not clear on its own. It can be terrifying at age 18 to get a questionable pap smear and then told by your clinic gyno that half your cervix is going to lopped off to prevent possible cervical cancer. This is not clearing on its own. (CN)
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