Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported at the International AIDS Conference that teens today are using condoms more than they were 20 years ago, but the increase is beginning to stall.
CDC researchers sadi that about 60 percent of sexually active high school students say they used a condom the last time they had sex. That's an increase from the 46 percent who were using condoms in 1991.
"This is good news," said Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of CDC's HIV prevention center. But, "we need to do a lot more."
The problem: Condom use reached a high of 63 percent back in 2003.
The CDC added that the averaage age when teens begin having sex is 16.
Fenton said that part of the problem of condom use is that many school systems don't have strong enough sex education policies that include teaching teens about how to prevent HIV. But he cautioned that the CDC study can't link the abstinence-only policies pushed by Congress through the late 1990s and early 2000s to the stalled progress.
In the U.S., where new HIV infections have stubbornly held at about 50,000 a year for a decade, complacency is part of the problem, Fenton added. "We have to generate a new sense of urgency," he said.
Source: Fox News
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2012/07/24/teens-are-using-more-condoms-researchers-say/