Prevalence of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Bacterial Vaginosis Among Female Adolescents in the United States: Data from the National Health And Nutritional Examination Survey
A quarter of U.S. female adolescents ages 14 to 19 had a sexually transmitted disease in 2003 and 2004, estimates a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Atlanta-based federal agency that tracks public health. African-American girls make up the highest percentage of female adolescents with sexually transmitted diseases, with an infection rate of 48 percent, followed by an infection rate of 20 percent each among whites and Mexican-Americans.
The study analyzed the results of medical examinations of 838 teenage girls randomly selected from U.S. Census Bureau data.
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