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Teen/Youth News
Note: These news briefs contain news that pertains to teens/youth and HIV/STD
issues, to both educate and increase awareness of what others are doing (or not
doing) for prevention, around the nation and around the world.
See also the Teen Issues page and
Teen Resources
 Meeting information for the STD,
HIV & Adolescents Networking Committee
Think you can tell if we have HIV?
Some of us are HIV positive and some are negative.
All of us want to challenge your assumptions about HIV.
Play the game and see if you can tell who is "Pos or Not".
Check it out at:
http://www.posornot.com
May News Briefs and Links
Cable Positive
Upcoming Deadline for Grant Application for Youth
Cable Positive's Youth AIDS Media Institute (YAMI) Community Outreach
Grant is a national grant program that exists to encourage youth ages 15-24 to
partner with community-based AIDS Service Organizations to create, strengthen,
and renew HIV/AIDS-related community outreach. Details in
Funding Resources.
The role of schools in strengthening
delivery of new adolescent vaccinations.
Lindley, MC, Boyer-Chu, L, Fishbein,DB, Kolasa,
M., Middleman, AB,
Wilson, T., Wolicki, J., Wooley, S.; Working Group on the Role of Schools
in Delivery of Adolescent Vaccinations. Pediatrics. 2008 Jan;121 Suppl 1:S46-
54.
"Most Moms Balk at HPV Vaccine for Young Girls:
Study"
Chicago Sun-Times , (05.05.2008) Monifa Thomas
The first national study of mothers’ attitudes toward the human papillomavirus (HPV)
vaccine found less than half (49 percent) said they would vaccinate a daughter
if she were nine to 12 years old. But 68 percent of the more than 10,000 moms
surveyed said they would be willing to vaccinate daughters who were 13 to 15.
The affirmative response climbed to 86 percent when the question was posed for
daughters ages 16 to 18. CDC Summary
GEORGIA:
"Houston Officials to Host Teen
Health Forum"
Macon Telegraph , (05.07.2008) Gene Rector
On Thursday, some 2,000 Houston County eighth-graders will attend a daylong Teen
Health Forum whose goal is to help them make smart decisions and cope with peer
pressure. CDC Summary
"Why African-American Teenage Girls Are Infected with STDs at Higher Rates"
Jet Magazine , (04.14.2008) Margena A. Christian
Differences in sexual behavior do not explain data showing almost half of
African-American teenage girls have at least one STD, compared with 20 percent
of their white and Mexican-American counterparts, top CDC officials say.
CDC Summary
What's the gender difference in dating aggression?
Dating aggression intervention programs should
address physical aggression of both males and
females. Because about 30% of the high school males
and females reported being the recipients of
physical aggression by their partners, primary
prevention efforts should occur before high school.
Journal of Adolescent Health
(5/2008)
New Website Challenges Teens' Assumptions about HIV
"Pos or Not" is an online viral game developed by mtvU, MTV Networks' Peabody
& Emmy Award-winning 24-hour college network, and the Kaiser Family Foundation,
in partnership with POZ Magazine. The creators of "Pos or Not" want to hear your thoughts on how to take "Pos
or Not" to the next level so play the game and send your feedback to
MyIdeas@posornot.com.
To Promote the Game on your Myspace, Facebook page or your organizations
homepage:
http://www.posornot.com/info.promote/
!
MICHIGAN:
"HPV Information Bill Heads to Granholm"
Associated Press , (04.30.2008)
A bill that would allow schools to inform parents of students in certain grades
about the vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus, the chief cause of cervical
cancer, has advanced from the Legislature to the desk of Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The Senate’s overwhelming approval this week followed an earlier affirmative
vote in the House. A plan to make the immunizations mandatory for sixth-grade
girls failed in a previous session of the Legislature.
See April News Archives
Summaries
"Most Moms Balk at HPV Vaccine for Young Girls: Study"
Chicago Sun-Times , (05.05.2008) Monifa Thomas
The first national study of mothers’ attitudes toward the human papillomavirus (HPV)
vaccine found less than half (49 percent) said they would vaccinate a daughter
if she were nine to 12 years old. But 68 percent of the more than 10,000 moms
surveyed said they would be willing to vaccinate daughters who were 13 to 15.
The affirmative response climbed to 86 percent when the question was posed for
daughters ages 16 to 18.
The HPV vaccine is approved for females ages nine to 26. CDC recommends
vaccination when girls are 11 to 12 years old, an age when they typically
receive adolescent booster shots.
Dr. Jessica Kahn, the study’s author and a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s
Hospital Medical Center, said the results are not surprising. “There’s sort of
an underlying assumption among some parents that recommending the vaccine means
that someone, either a clinician or themselves, will have to have a discussion
that HPV is transmitted sexually. I think that’s a barrier,” she said.
In addition, parents and doctors assume that older girls are at higher risk for
HPV, and so they may feel less urgency to vaccinate at a younger age, said Kahn.
However, HPV vaccination is most effective in girls who have not yet been
exposed to the virus.
Recent CDC figures show HPV is the most common STD among teenage girls in the
United States. The vaccine Gardasil targets HPV strains that are responsible for
70 percent of the more than 10,000 new cervical cancer cases diagnosed in the
United States each year.
GEORGIA:
"Houston Officials to Host Teen
Health Forum"
Macon Telegraph , (05.07.2008) Gene Rector
On Thursday, some 2,000 Houston County eighth-graders will attend a daylong Teen
Health Forum whose goal is to help them make smart decisions and cope with peer
pressure.
Eighth grade is “the time we start seeing young people make health decisions on
their own,” said Beth Jones, director of community education and services for
Houston Healthcare, which is sponsoring the event with Houston County public and
private schools and Peachbelt Medical Society. “Things such as smoking, use of
alcohol, maybe riding with someone who’s been drinking. That’s the focus. We
talk a lot about how just one decision can affect the rest of your life.”
The convocation at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry will
begin with a presentation by Dr. Harold Katner, an infectious-disease expert and
professor at Mercer University. He will talk with students about HIV/AIDS, STDs,
and cervical cancer.
Other speakers will discuss how students can take responsibility for their
health and stay safe. Representatives from the county district attorney’s office
and Warner Robbins Police Department will focus on gangs and teen-related crime.
Jason Respert, a former All-American high school football star whose career was
almost upended by an arrest in 2000, will talk about handling peer pressure.
“As far as I know, we’re the only school system that does this type of thing” in
Georgia, said Frankie Ross, the county school district’s coordinator for health
and physical education. The teens look forward to their opportunity to attend
the annual gathering, she said.
“Prevention is better than the cure,” Jones said. “So if we can keep kids
healthy and encourage them to live a lifestyle that will improve their health,
then we will have done a good thing.”
"Why African-American Teenage Girls Are Infected with STDs at Higher Rates"
Jet Magazine , (04.14.2008) Margena A. Christian
Differences in sexual behavior do not explain data showing almost half of
African-American teenage girls have at least one STD, compared with 20 percent
of their white and Mexican-American counterparts, top CDC officials say.
“Individual behavior, when looking at sexual practices among the girls in the
study, was not different between African-American and white adolescents,” said
Dr. John Douglas, director of STD prevention at CDC. “It looks like it’s very
much related to conditions in the community. African Americans typically have
higher background rates of infection. So a woman who has a single partner, for
example, is [still] much more likely to be exposed to infection and acquire it
if she’s in an African-American community than a white community.”
“We know insurance rates are lower and the use of preventive services are lower”
in the black community, said Douglas. “But we also think it’s related to the
many challenges in these communities. High rates of incarceration, high rates of
unemployment, difficulties with transportation and potentially lower quality
health care services.”
“The epidemics of STDs are hidden because we don’t talk about them and many
times there are no symptoms at all,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the
agency’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention.
“An on-going screening for infection for STDs is really an important part of
prevention and an honesty in our dialogue.”
“We have to get the topic of sex, sexuality and [STDs] out of the corner and in
the bright light,” Douglas concurred. “Whether talking about ‘the down low’ or
talking about STDs in adolescents, sex is an uncomfortable topic for Americans
to talk about,” he said. “We love to market it, and we love to have it in our
music, but we don’t like to talk with each other about it. We really need to get
beyond that if we’re going to think prevention progress.”
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