Reuters: U.S.: Efforts to cut risky sexual behavior by U.S. teens stall

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Efforts to cut risky sexual behavior by U.S. teens stall Jul 24th 2012, 14:04 By Salimah Ebrahim WASHINGTON | Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:00am EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Efforts to reduce risky sexual behavior among high school students have stalled in the past decade and urgent action is needed to stem HIV infection rates in young people, who account for nearly half of all new cases, public health officials say. The National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, analyzed twenty years of national HIV-related risk behavior data on U.S. high school students primarily between the ages of 14 and 17. It found that while progress was made in the 1990s, when a decline was seen in the number of students who admitted to having multiple sexual partners, those rates have largely held steady since 2001. The data was released in conjunction with the International AIDS Society's annual conference in Washington. "We have to think about opportunities either to redouble our efforts or refine our efforts to get back on track," said Kevin Fenton, director of CDC's National Center for HIV/AIDS/Viral Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention. Laura Kann, a senior CDC scientist, has led the survey since its inception in 1987. She said the latest results gave reason for concern, as recent statistics showed that 40 percent of all new HIV infections are occurring among young people under the age of 30. In all, an estimated 1.1 million Americans are currently living with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. "Too many high school students in this country are at risk for HIV because they have had sexual intercourse, had multiple sex partners and are having unprotected sexual intercourse without a condom," she said. "Any kid that is practicing those behaviors is putting themselves at risk." The survey data pointed to one area of improvement - a significant decline in sexually risky behavior among black high school students over the past twenty years. While African American youth still show higher rates of risky behavior than their peers, the narrowing gap between black and white youth shows that investments in sexual education and HIV prevention efforts can have an effect, Fenton said. "At a time when we know there are tremendous health inequities associated with HIV, data that suggests that we are moving in the right direction to reduce some of these inequities - that's a good-news story and we need to learn why this is occurring and see what more we can do to support that trend," he told Reuters. However, such efforts are already under threat. In the past decade, the number of U.S. high school students who have been taught about HIV and received sexual education in schools has declined steadily due to budget cutbacks. Also, in a society where HIV is no longer seen as the major public health threat it once was, it's easy for complacency to set in, Fenton and Kann said. The CDC is also grappling with spending cuts, and is expected to reduce its own its budget for HIV and sexual education programs by 25 percent next year. "School-based investments have taken a hit," Fenton said. "Clearly with a cut of that nature you have to make some tough choices and we're going to have to be creative about how we think of funding programs in the future." (Editing by Michele Gershberg and David Brunnstrom) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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