DC to Offer STD Tests to All Students

Figures raise concerns after positive trends

(NEWSER) - After declining in 1991-2005, the US teen birth rate climbed in 2006 and 2007, HealthDay News reports. Crunching numbers from 2002-07, the Centers for Disease Control found a number of trends had flatlined or worsened after a period of improvement.

• 2004 saw 745,000 pregnancies among females under 20, including 16,000 among girls 10 to 14 years old.
• One-third of adolescents had no birth-control education before age 18.

Adult entertainment industry reels after hearing the news

(NEWSER) - Two of the porn industry's biggest companies have stopped production following the news that an actor has tested positive for HIV. Yesterday's revelation sent the industry—which eschews the use of condoms on porn sets—into a tizzy, as it attempts to track down the people who may have worked with the actor, whose name and gender have not been released, reports the AP . More»

STD mutating so fast that antibiotics can't keep up

(NEWSER) - The clap is mutating so quickly that there is a real danger that it will become incurable unless new treatments are developed, British doctors warn. The bacterium that causes gonorrhea—the second most common STD in the US—is remarkably adaptable and has proven resistant to the primary drug used to treat gonorrhea in 20% of UK cases last year, the BBC reports. In 2005, that number was zero. More»

'Superbug' could spread globally within decades

(NEWSER) - A "superbug" strain of gonorrhea, the first ever to resist all currently recommended treatments, has been discovered in Japan. The strain, called H041, could quickly spread around the globe, scientists warn. While gonorrhea was once an easily treated STD, it has shown a "remarkable capacity" to develop drug resistance after doctors started using antibiotics to treat it in the 1940s, says the scientist who discovered the new strain. More»

But more than 200K have infection without knowing it

(NEWSER) - An estimated 240,000 people in America have HIV without knowing it, but that figure is dropping after three years of targeted testing among high-risk populations, the Washington Post reports. The $111 million program, carried out in ERs, venereal disease clinics, and drug-treatment centers around the US found 18,000 people with the illness. “This is a considerable boost to the nation’s health. Did it make a difference to America? I think it did,” said a top CDC official. More»