In the first national study of common sexually transmitted diseases infecting teenage girls, researchers found that one out of every four American teenage girls is harboring at least one std. Bloomberg reports,

About 3.2 million women between ages 14 and 19 had human papillomavirus, chlamydia, genital herpes or trichomoniasis. That number would be even higher if less-common diseases such as hiv/aids, syphilis and gonorrhea were included in the analysis, according to the report released [March 11] by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [cdc].Sexually transmitted diseases cost almost $15 billion to treat annually in the U.S., and more than half of those infected are under 24 years old, according to the Atlanta-based cdc. About half the young women in [the] study reported having sex, and 40 percent of sexually active women had stds. hpv, a virus that causes cervical cancer, was the most common infection, prevalent among 18 percent of the teen girls in the study.”What we found is alarming,” said Sara Forhan, author of the study and a researcher at the cdc’s division of std prevention. “One of the things that we think is particularly important is how fast the stds appear. In those young women who report sex with just one sexual partner in their lifetime, the prevalence of stds is 20 percent.”The study analyzed data from 838 teenagers who participated in a national health study in 2003 and 2004. Researchers used the nationally representative sample to project rates across the U.S.

In an effort to downplay the fact that a full 18 percent of America’s teenage girls are infected with the carcinogenic human papillomavirus (hpv), cdc officials stressed that many people who contract hpv never know it because most hpv infections “clear on their own” without causing any major health problems.

The American Social Health Organization’s Internet homepage states that the symptoms caused by many varieties of stds are not really serious enough for them to be labeled actual diseases. The organization is recommending that the designation “disease” should be scaled back to “infection” for several varieties of stds. Candidates for this treatment would include stds such as gonorrhea, herpes and hpv.

The fact is that American teens are being deliberately fed false information by those who are more concerned about being politically correct and promoting “sexual freedom” than they are about protecting people’s sexual health. Unscrupulous educators are downplaying the true dangers of stds in an effort to hammer home their political agenda.

The infection of 26 percent of American teenage girls with stds—to say nothing of the infection rate in adults and teenage boys—is a serious epidemic that should not be downplayed or taken lightly.

Screenings, vaccinations, and so-called safe-sex practices are only futile attempts to treat the effects of the problem while ignoring the root cause. The root cause of this epidemic is sexual immorality. Information about stds that implies that everybody is at risk is wrong. If a person abstains from sex until married, marries someone who has done the same, and the two stay faithful to each other, their chances of contacting an std are approximately 0 percent.

There is an alternative to the half-truths and outright lies being promulgated in our “anything goes” society. Anyone who avoids unmarried sex will avoid the curse of stds and experience wonderful, long-term benefits.

For more information on how to preserve your sexual health and on the God-ordained uses of sex, read “Sexual Health: What Every High School and College Student Needs to Know” by Joel Hilliker and The Missing Dimension in Sex by Herbert W. Armstrong.