Mobile, Alabama With Abstinence-Based Education, STDs Are 3X Rate Of NYC

[DeSwiss]

Sexual diseases flourish in Mobile County

Sunday, September 16, 2007
By NADIA M. TAYLOR
Staff Reporter

Last year in Mobile County, 4,629 new cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported -- enough instances of the sexually transmitted diseases to account for one out of every 87 people, according to a Press-Register review of state and federal statistics. That was about three times the rate in New York City and more than twice as high as Washington, D.C.

While the numbers seem shocking, they're not at epidemic levels, according to health officials. "If you don't do this for a living or you're not an OB specialist or you're not an infectious disease specialist, and you look at the numbers, you go, 'Oh my God,'" said Paul Piepho, disease intervention program manager at the Mobile County Health Department. "We're not at that point."

Statewide, syphilis cases were up 60 percent last year, compared with 2005 (from 583 cases to 931). Chlamydia has also been on the rise, increasing 44-fold from 509 cases in 1994 to 22,560 in 2006. "And I think we're seeing just the tip of the iceberg," Piepho said. Eight counties -- poor and sparsely populated except for No. 2-ranked Montgomery County -- had higher STD rates in 2006 than Mobile County, statistics showed.

A lack of education weighs heavily on a county's rate, health officials said. In Alabama public schools, students are taught abstinence-based sex education as part of a half credit of health education in high school. Students learn that "abstinence is the only protection against pregnancy, HIV/AIDs and STDs," said state Department of Education spokeswoman Edith Parten. The subject of condoms, under the state course of study guidelines, is not broached, she said.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/1189934476174290.xml&coll=3

- Aside from contracting an STD, you want to know what the really worst of all this is? Alabama teen pregnancies mean more Repukes....

[aquart]

1. Aww, that old time religion, it's good enough for STD's.

[DeSwiss]

2. Hallelujah!!! n/t