A startling statistic

Startling news comes via the Centers for Disease Control that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease.

Translation from the dry statistics: Teens, you or someone you know is likely to contract an STD. The health toll can mushroom beyond a single infection. Some STDs can cause cervical cancer or infertility.

Public-health policy should heed the call of adolescent-health experts for better screening, vaccination and prevention.

More disturbing news comes inside the details of the study of 838 girls. At an overall STD rate of 26 percent, that means 3 million girls nationwide have an infection. Among African-American girls, the rate is 50 percent.

Fingers can arguably point blame at many causes; poverty, the fallibility of abstinence-only education and teens' own sense of invulnerability.

Dr. John Douglas, director of the CDC's division of STD prevention, says screening tests are underused in part because many teens don't think they're at risk and doctors mistakenly think, "Sexually transmitted diseases don't happen to the kinds of patients I see."

There is work to be done on every front. Abstinence education has its place. Clearly, many girls are not abstaining from sex.

Challenge then lies in educating them about safe sex. Outreach toward teens engaged in risky behaviors should be increased. More weight ought to be given to the CDC's recommended three-dose HPV vaccine for girls ages 11-12 and catch-up shots for ages 13-26.

For every teen who thinks it couldn't happen to them, the one-in-four statistic ought to serve as rebuttal.

This is a critical conversation. Avoiding it leaves teenage girls to pay the price.