Teen Pregnancies, STDs Increase: CDC

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.

• Syphilis cases are up among both males and females aged 15-24. About 1 million people aged 10-24 were diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis in 2006.
• That year, the majority of new HIV diagnoses were in males and young people ages 20-24.
• Almost a quarter of females 15-19 and 45% of females 20-24 had HPV in 2003-2004.
• Some 100,000 females 10-24 years old sought emergency care for nonfatal sexual assaults from 2004-06.

(More teen pregnancy stories.)