Abstinence Key to Avoiding Sex Disease -- CDC

"The surest way to eliminate risk for future genital [human papillomavirus] is to refrain from any genital contact with another individual," CDC said in a report to Congress released last week. For a sexually active person, the best way to avoid HPV is to have only one uninfected partner, according to the report issued by CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding.

It recommends that all sexually active women receive regular cervical screenings, and that women and men not in monogamous relationships reduce their number of sexual partners and choose partners who have not had a lot of sexual partners.

"While a few studies on genital HPV and condom use showed a protective effect, most studies ... did not show a protective effect," it says. "The available scientific evidence is not sufficient to recommend condoms as a primary prevention strategy" for HPV. However, the report says that consistent condom use is useful because evidence suggests it is likely to reduce some HPV transmission and/or block other sexual infections.

Some 20 million Americans have HPV, many strains of which cause no clinical problems and "go away on their own without treatment," according to the report. But a few strains cause cell abnormalities, and HPV is associated with almost every case of cervical cancer, which kills more than 4,000 women each year.

Previously, Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) took CDC to task for missing its December deadline for delivering the HPV report. Yesterday, Souder thanked Gerberding for the "comprehensive, scientific report." "The obvious next step is for the CDC to educate the public by promoting these recommendations for prevention," said Souder, who chairs the House Government Reform subcommittee on criminal justice, drug policy and human resources.

Separately, President Bush has proposed doubling abstinence-education funds from $135 million to more than $270 million, of which $186 million would go to a new Community-Based Abstinence Education grant program run by the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. It would replace a regional program run by the department's Health Resources and Service Administration.

Back to other news for February 3, 2004