A north Carolina mother says her daughter came home with a flyer explaining how a sexually transmitted disease is contracted.

A new law in North Carolina requires public schools to help educate parents on human papillomavirus - or HPV. But 10-year-old Erica Cuellar got the flyer at her elementary school. She was one of about 100 students at D.F. Walker Elementary who took the information to her parents. Her mom Barbara was shocked by what was in her child’s backpack.

“It talks about things kids in high school probably should see. It’s words I can’t even say (on television),” Barbara explained.

Granted, 10 is a bit young, but seriously, I’m sure the words that were on the paper weren’t any the kiddos could have figured out anyway.

With the average age of teens having their first sexual encounter being twelve, I’d say that it’s right on course for getting the information out there.

My own kids were saying the names of STD’s at the age of 7. I’ve explained many things to them in a way they could understand. Granted, I left out all the parts detailing sex and intercourse, but still, they became familiar with the names of the diseases just the same.

At least when they are faced with such issues as discussing these topics, they won’t be afraid of the words, thereby making them more comfortable with the discussion.

The point parents need to realize here is IF you don’t teach your kids, someone else will! Would you rather it be the school? Or would you rather it be the kid in their class that’s the walking poster child for sexually transmitted diseases?

Tags: sexually transmitted diseases, teens, tweens

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Doctors are dealing with an horrific side affect of abuse - more children with sexually transmitted diseases.

Instances of chlamydia, gonorrhoea, pelvic inflammatory disease and genital warts are all increasing and doctors blame child abuse.

The children have contracted diseases as a result of sexual abuse, often at the hands of relations or care givers.

Doctors say the statistics show nearly 7 percent of abused children get a sexually transmitted disease, and since many abuse cases go unreported, they suspect the true figures are much worse.

In Auckland between 1991 and 2002 14 cases of gonorrhoea were confirmed in young children, and in the 20 cases of chlamydia, four patients were five or six-year-old girls. An eight-year-old girl had both.

“People think these are low figures but we need to realise only one in six children who present with suspected sexual abuse actually gets a medical examination,” Te Puaruruhau child abuse unit clinical director Patrick Kelly says.

A paediatrician, he says silence allows the problem to be ignored.

Dr Kelly’s Grafton Rd unit brings police, the hospital and Child, Youth and Family together.

He says in 13 of the 14 gonorrhoea cases the children had not been taken to the doctor for sexual abuse, but instead for genital symptoms, and the disease was picked up on a routine swab.

“There are no numbers yet to support our belief that significantly more cases could exist. But we all know the majority of sexual abuse cases are not even disclosed.

“When a child is found to have a sexual disease the repercussions for the family are enermous, especially if no one owns up,” he says.

“The effect is felt by the whole family because they are all investigated.”

Dr Kelly says there are sometimes lifelong consequences for abused children.

Another problem was people’s belief that the medical examination of a child was traumatic.

However, specialists dealing with children were well-trained and the examination was brief and non-invasive.

“We approach children as a whole person, not just as a victim of abuse,” he says.

Often other health issues were also found because abused children rarely saw a doctor.

Statistics show 17 percent of girls and 4 percent of boys have been sexually abused by the time they are 16, and for 6 percent of girls that includes rape.

Between 1991 and 1998 three-year-old girls were most often referred for suspected sexual abuse, followed by two and four-year-old girls. The next most vulnerable age was 11 and then 14-year-old girls.

Dr Kelly says physical symptoms in children can be shortlived or trivial, but nearly always show in some way.

“While it simply may not occur to most people to consider sexual diseases when dealing with children, in the climate of child abuse we have here, it certainly should.”

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AN 11-year-old boy forced two pre-school-aged girls to have sex with him, infected them with sexually transmitted diseases, but will not be prosecuted by Western Australian authorities.

Police yesterday confirmed that criminal charges would not be laid against the boy from Balgo, a troubled indigenous community in the northeastern reaches of the Great Sandy Desert 100km from the Northern Territory border, despite his being above the age of criminal responsibility under state law.

Although the incident is part of a continuing investigation, senior police have decided to treat the issue as a health matter, not a criminal one.

The Australian also understands the offender was never removed from the remote community, but was warned by a court not to go near his victims, believed to be aged five and six, and several other vulnerable youngsters.

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Tags: std, sexually transmitted, teens, pre-teen