Sex Disease Numbers Worry Officials
Detroit Free Press
Megan Christensen
March 11, 2004
A study
presented by the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) during the
National STD Prevention Conference in Philadelphia found that 14 percent of
adolescents in a three-year screening of Oakland County teens tested positive
for chlamydia.
The study
examined 3,350 young people in three school-based clinics, two juvenile centers
and two youth shelters. School- based clinics had the most cases, with 17
percent of males and 21 percent of females testing positive. The research began
in December 2000.
Mark
Miller, director of STD prevention for MDCH, said the Oakland numbers are
similar to figures in other US cities, and that adolescents have generally
higher STD rates than the general population. Without the initiative, the study
concluded, 80 percent of male cases and 55 percent of female cases would have
been missed because they had no symptoms. In schools, half of the positive
results occurred in students who had visited the clinics for reasons unrelated
to STDs.
MDCH statistics show chlamydia was the most commonly reported STD in the state for all age groups in 2002, with 32,272 cases. Detroit had 11,374 cases, 34 percent of which were found in teens ages 15-19, said city health officials. Miller noted that chlamydia is still underreported, so rates will likely grow as testing expands. Men are more likely to have noticeable burning during urination, Miller said, and women may mistakenly attribute vaginal discharge or burning to other infections.