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Cr 141 L i� {i f �i 4s. . BOOK 104 ME More Deadly Than AIDS Women's groups have complained. with some cause, that the federal government shortchanges research into breast cancer, osteoporosis and other • female diseases. Strangely, however, little has been said of the human papilloma virus. a sexually trans- mitted disease that kills more U.S. women each year than AIDS. In 1891. the last year for which the Centers for Dis- ease Control has compiled data. AIDS contracted through sexual intercourse killed about 1,300 U.S. women. By comparison. invasive cervical cancer killed about 4,400 women. The cause of 85 percent of these tumors is 1WV, which, unlike AIDS. is passed on only through the sexual acL In 1882, the CDC spent $478 million on preventing AIDS vs. $70 mil - Ron for all other sexually transmitted diseases. in- cluding HPV. Of course. one big difference separates the vi- ruses: AIDS Is universally fatal, while many women live with HPV, essentially, genital warts. for dec- ades with no discomfort. Yet doctors fret because they are seeing more HPV, especially in younger women. The Journal of the American Medical Asso- ciation ssnciation said amazingly that, of 467 University of California -Berkeley coeds who underwent routine gynecological exams. 46 percent carried the HPV . virus. To make matters worse, adolescent girls are i doubly vulnerable because their immature cervical tissue predisposes them to infection. Tissue weak- : ened by HPV also may be less resistant to the AIDS The response of many government officials to sex- ually transmitted diseases, such as HPV, is to pre- ach the consistent use of condoms. But there is ample reason to doubt the "safe sex" message. A study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that 36 percent of women in their early 20s became preg- nant atter relying on male condom use. "If a condom can't even protect a woman from pregnancy," tl umnist Sarah Overstreet "what kindgiving her against death?" At a time when the member of sexually active' teenagers is up 63 percent from 20 years earlier, condoms had better be almost failsafe, unless the trend of promiscuity can be reversed. Otherwise, so- ciety can prepare for escalating anxiety, wrecked lives and early deaths But here is the kicker: Against HPV, the sexually transmitteddisease that kills the most women6 con- doms are largely ineffective:^ • • : , "Condom use is of little or -no •value in protecting patients from papilloma infection;' said two past presidents of the American Society for Cervical Pa- thology. Women's health advocates should get that word out, and the world's latex evangelists should deliver a new sermon: on sexual abstinence. �i2�10/6��NR&d7N&- GF 14( 7 1 /en"J eSl7Z/ d a� �' ulNO Lll�! J,tJ�= cac��c�L '-ft ,�1MSA16) CORR16-0 11nMOUR �V�� ZEZAL6 O fi � A! 61ALS /eEots,gMffS 71j4S-M School -Bused Clinics: No Reduction in Teen Pregnancies School-based clinics do not reduce the teen pregnan- cy rale, according to a solid body of research. In lie laBi/fBli�'1991SIilsU8'blrtti[iiiilti rl iiii�nn �erspeciivei<, published- by -Planned Pare hillood'e ieiaearch affilin1b, the -Alan Uulimacher.Inailule, a study -of-six•SDG's round Wal they have'ho effect on ihd ptegunfiWtift. In one instance involving a SHC in Dallase pregnancies were actually higher- at• the tlinit:'•schooi ihsn-st a comparison school with no ciinici 'Similar conclusions were reached in a 089 booklet by the Center for Population Options, also an advocate of SUC's. JANUARY 27, 1998 0 -40- •