Daily HealthBeat Tip

Rude shock.

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Teen-agers only think they know all the answers. And a study of sexually transmitted diseases shows what they don't know can hurt them.

Julie Downs of Carnegie Mellon University surveyed about 300 teen-age girls on what they knew about STDs. Her study in the Journal of Adolescent Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Downs says girls knew most about HIV/AIDS, but that their knowledge of other diseases was spotty. She's concerned that their little knowledge can be a dangerous thing:

"Sometimes, girls think that they are being really careful by getting themselves and their partners tested for HIV, which is great. But then a lot of them think they are clean – or free of all diseases. And it comes as a rude shock that the HIV test doesn't screen for anything else." (13 seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: February 23, 2006

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