Teens' sexual risk taking: early intervention a must.
Sexually risky behaviors on the part of adolescents is nothing new, but the age at which these behaviors begin is. In fact, new data suggest that sexual risk taking often begins in middle school. Baseline data collected in spring 2005 from 4,457 middle school students aged 11-14...

Promoting female condom use to heterosexual couples: findings from a randomized clinical trial.
Important gender-based innovations in the prevention of HIV and other STDs include the introduction of the female condom and promoting its use in interventions that target couples. (1) In the face of soaring heterosexually acquired HIV infection globally, the female condom has emerged as an acceptable alternative or supplemental...

Updated STD guidelines coming soon from CDC.
BOSTON -- The soon-to-be-released 2006 STD treatment guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention likely will include new recommendations for diagnosis or treatment of gonorrhea, bacterial vaginosis, trichomoniasis, herpes simplex virus, and human papillomavirus, according to a former CDC official. Some of the recommendations could...

Still a killer.
Here's what you need to know about HIV/AIDS today. Just over 25 years ago, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a mystery: Young, previously healthy homosexual men were getting a rare, frequently fatal form of pneumonia. Two had died. Since then, 25 million...

HSV-2 infection linked to increased risk for PID.
WASHINGTON -- Herpes simplex virus type 2 infection in women may be associated with an increased risk of pelvic inflammatory disease, Dr. Thomas L. Cherpes reported in a poster at the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The role of chronic genital viral infections in...

Sexual practices at last heterosexual encounter and occurrence of orgasm in a national survey.
In heterosexual encounters, women are less likely to reach orgasm than men. This has long been seen as a problem in the sexological literature (Fisher, 1973; Masters & Johnson, 1966, 1970; van de Velde, 1957). Men's orgasms, on the other hand, are generally seen as unproblematic unless they occur...

It's 'undercover virus'.
Byline: Meenakshi Kumar NEW DELHI: Have you been ignoring that ugly boil on your arm? Well, look again, they could be 'unwanted guests' you are carrying around. Passed on to you by the neighbourhood parlour. This 'unwanted guest' is actually a virus, gently tucked away...

Sarkari aid could work wonders.
With the Government contemplating a policy which will protect patients of HIV/AIDS from being discriminated, World AIDS Day, is sure to bring some hope for the victims. This time at least, it's sarkar to the aid. And had things moved a little more swiftly, Shilpa Shetty's Phir...

Emergency preparedness.
Easy access to emergency contraception does not appear to encourage women to engage in risky behavior. (1) In a study conducted in 2001-2003 in four California clinics, 2,117 women aged 15-24 were randomly assigned to either have access to emergency contraception from a pharmacy without a prescription, receive a...

The other shoe drops: federal abstinence education program becomes more restrictive.
In 2004, the Bush administration announced that it was transferring administration of its pet abstinence-only education program from the Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Health Resources and Services Administration to its more ideologically driven Administration for Children, Youth and Families. Many observers noted at the time that...