Sexually Transmitted Diseases Among Adolescents in Developed Countries

Information is scarce on trends in Eu-rope and North America for chlamydia (defined here as including only genital chlamydial infection), genital herpes and human papillomavirus infection, and when information is available it covers only the 1990s.3 Although some increases in incidence are documented, it is unclear how much of this upward trend is due to improvements in case ascertainment and surveillance or to actual increases in STD incidence. Most developed countries have seen dramatic declines in the incidence of syphilis and gonorrhea since World War II. Some eastern European countries ne-vertheless have recently experienced in-creases in these two STDs. STDs deserve attention not only because of their high prevalence but also because they frequently go undetected and un-treated, and can result in serious reproduc-tive morbidity and mortality.4 Compared with the extensive efforts devoted to re-Christine Panchaud is an independent consultant, Susheela Singh is director of research, Dina Feivelson is research associate and Jacqueline E. Darroch is senior vice president and vice president for research, all with Th