HPV? Herpes? Chlamydia?

I'm thankful for Islam, for giving me an alternative.

I'm thankful for my parents, for laying a proper foundation allowing me to attend the sex ed. classes in middle school.

AND I'm thankful for Carl Rice and Rushiko Nishikuni, for teaching the sex ed. classes in middle school. Islam and parents aside, those two put the fear of HIV and herpes in my heart.

This is sad, sad news:

One in four teenage girls has an STD! Start panicking now!

If you've been watching the news or reading the newspaper for the past two days, that's probably what you've heard. If you're a teenage girl, you've probably checked yourself in the bathroom at least once to make sure there's nothing new going on down there. What's causing all the chaos?

A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. The most common infection the study found was the human papillomavirus or HPV. A whopping 18 percent of teen girls apparently have the virus. Compare that to the 40 percent of the girls ages 14-19 in the study who were sexually active, and that means almost half of all young women who are having sex have contracted the disease.

Coming in at a very distant second in the study was chlamydia. The bacterial infection showed up in 4 percent of the women tested.

"Women are often without symptoms for chlamydia," said Fred Wyand of the American Social Health Association. "It's not like you assume, with itching and burning. People don't always know they have it. The CDC recommends all sexually active women 25 and under get screened for chlamydia."

Full Story: MTV News