Leading Public Health Organization Renews the Call for Increased Comprehensive Sexual Health Education Programs

For Immediate Release

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC - Following the release of today's University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JOMC) report, Our Voices, Our Lives, Our Futures: Youth and Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the American Social Health Association (ASHA) renews its call for increased comprehensive sexual health education.

"The data highlighted in this report should be a rallying cry for proponents of comprehensive sexual health education programs," said Deborah Arrindell, ASHA's Senior Director of Health Policy. "While unprecedented amounts of money are being given to abstinence-only sex education programs, the United States continues to have higher rates of STD infection and teen pregnancy than any other industrialized nation."

The UNC report summarizes research findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also released today in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) (article 1, article 2). The Perspectives articles reveal more than 9 million new sexually transmitted disease (STD) cases among youth ages 15- 24 each year - infections, which cost the nation more than $6 billion in direct medical costs. ?These findings disturb me on many levels," says James R. Allen, MD, MPH, ASHA's President & CEO. "As a grandparent, a pediatrician, and the head of a national public health organization, I am concerned about our failure as a nation to do all that we can to protect the health of our children and young adults. Abstinence is an important public health message, but it cannot be the only message."

The JOMC project convened two separate panels to examine the incidence and impact of STDs on U.S. adolescents and young adults. A youth panel, along with an advisory panel of experts in public health, economics, behavioral science, medicine, and communication determined that America's youth need more information and options, not less. According to an ASHA position statement on comprehensive sexual health education programs, sound curricula include medically accurate and developmentally appropriate discussions of: sexuality; reproduction; fertility; methods of contraception; decision-making; delaying first intercourse; abstinence; risk assessment and risk reduction; and STD (including HIV) prevention. "Our nation is uncomfortable with discussions of sex and sexuality, but we must move from discomfort to discourse if we hope to ever stem the tide of this epidemic," said Tracey A. Adams, ASHA's Director of Community Outreach & Media Relations, and a member of the report's advisory panel.

ASHA, established in 1914, has worked for 90 years to improve the health of individuals, families and communities, with a focus on preventing sexually transmitted diseases and their harmful consequences. Each year ASHA delivers accurate and reliable health information to millions of people worldwide via hotlines, state-of-the-art Web sites, responsive e-mail services, award winning educational materials, and a variety of educational programs.

To learn more about STDs and how to prevent them, please visit ASHA's Web sites www.ashastd.org or www.iwannaknow.org (for teens), or contact one of ASHA's sexual health hotlines or resource centers:

Media Contact:
Media Relations
P.O. Box 13827
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
(919) 361 - 3124 (voice)
(919) 361 - 8425 (fax)
mediarelations@ashastd.org