“We applaud” Washington, D.C.’s decision to offer a voluntary
program to educate and test its public high school students for sexually transmitted infections in the next school year, a Washington Post editorial says. According to the Post, the D.C. Health Department will visit 20 high schools during the 2009-2010 academic year, “with the goal of reaching 10,000 of the district’s 12,000 high school students.” Students and parents can choose not to participate in the presentations and testing, which is designed to “maintain the anonymity,” the editorial says. Students who test positive will be connected with clinics that offer no-cost treatment, or they can receive treatment through their private physicians.

“The statistics behind this effort show why it is necessary,” the editorial says, noting that 13% of the 3,000 students at eight high schools tested positive for an STI — mostly chlamydia or gonorrhea — in a pilot program in 2008. According to the D.C. Health Department, four out of five infected students showed no symptoms of the infections, which can “lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, urinary tract infections or infertility” if untreated. “Even more alarming, student with [STIs] are five times more at risk for contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, which has no cure,” the editorial says.

The program does not include parental notification for students who test positive for an STI because of public health laws prohibiting the department from “sharing results with anyone other than the patient,” the editorial says. However, “we hope students and their parents or guardians will talk about the responsibilities and consequences of sexual activity,” it continues, adding, “Whether parents like it or not, many teenagers are having sex. That’s why it is imperative that they have all the information possible to make wise choices and to protect themselves” (Washington Post, 8/13).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.

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