SILVER RING THING WORLDWIDE STATS

Over the past 10 years, SRT has held over 500 Live Events in many different cities across the United States and around the world.  To date, SRT has brought the abstinence message to over 250,000 students and parents, and nearly 100,000 students have put on a ring as a symbol of their commitment to wait until marriage.  In addition, through this program, over 50,000 young people have made decisions to follow Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Teen STDS - Just the Facts [RESOURCES]
(All figures from CDC and other published reports; contact SRT for annotated listing)

• Of the more than 15 million new STD infections each year:
  
  • two-thirds will occur in people under 25 years of age
    
  • one in four will occur in teenagers
    
    
• Every year approximately 10 billion dollars is spent on major STDs other than AIDS and their complications. This cost is shared by all Americans.
  
  
• Today there are more than 30 STDs and over 200 strains of human papilloma virus (HPV).
  
  
• A British study found that HPV infects 46% of teenage girls after their first sexual intercourse
  
  
• HPV is directly linked to 99.7% of all cervical cancers. Nearly as many women die of cervical cancer each year as die of AIDS.
  
  
• Herpes increased 500% in the past 20 years among caucasian American teens.
  
  
• Nearly 50% of african-american teens have genital herpes.
  
  
• Nearly 1 in 10 teen girls has chlamydia; nearly half of all cases are girls 15-19 years old.
  
  
• Over 80% of teens with STDs show no symptoms and therefore never get medical attention, leaving them exposed to the risk of serious complications years later.
  
  
• In a national Kaiser Family Foundation survey, one out of every five sexually active teens reported that oral sex is safe sex. However, HIV, herpes, HPV, chancroid, intestinal parasites, gonorrhea, syphilis and hepatitis A & B can all be contracted through oral sex.
  
  
• Condoms not only do not eliminate the risk of contracting an STD, they do little to prevent many viral infections spread by skin-to-skin contact, especially HPV and herpes.

Teen Pregnancy - Just the Facts
(Facts and figures from the Centers for Disease Control and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy - September 2000)

• The United States has the highest rate of teen pregnancy, birth and abortion in the industrialized world, costing taxpayers over $7 billion per year.
  
  
• More than 40% of American girls become pregnant at least once by age 20.
  
  
• Half of all single mothers on welfare were teenagers when they had their first child.
  
  
• Fewer than one third of teen mothers ever finish high school.
  

Who's Really at Risk? - Just the Facts

• More than one-third of 9th graders have had sexual intercourse.
  
  
• More than half of 12th graders have had sexual intercourse.
  
  
• More than 50% of 8th graders and 80% of 12th graders have tried alcohol. One third of 14-21 year old girls who became pregnant, reported that they had been drinking when they had sex.
  
  
• New studies show that clinical depression in adolescent boys and girls is related to sexual activity and drinking.
  
  
• Eight in ten girls and six in ten boys who were sexually active say that they wish they had waited until they were older.
  
  
• 33% of 8-11 year olds and 49% of 12-15 year olds said that pressure to have sex is a "big problem" for them.

RESOURCES:

US Centers for Disease Control “Epidemic: Tracking the Hidden Epidemics: Trends in STDs in the United States 2000”.
Click Here

US Centers for Disease Control “CDC Issues National Report Card on STDs: Gonorrhea and Syphilis Down, but Not Beaten: Chlamydia Continues to Spread Widely” 1998.
Click Here

National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases, NIH, USHHS, “An Introduction to Sexually Transmitted Diseases” July 1999.
Click Here

NIAID & National Institutes of Health, “Workshop Summary: Scientific Evidence on Condom Effectiveness for Sexually Transmitted Disease STD) Prevention, 2001. Click Here

The Medical Institute on Sexual Health, “Oral Sex and STDs” Fall 2003.
Click Here (click on Sexual Health Update Newsletter, spring 2003)

UPMC News Bureau: “Magee-Womens Research Institute Study Finds Undiagnosed Sexually Transmitted Disease Infection Rate of Nearly 1 in 5 Among Adolescent Females” June 7, 2001.
Click Here

The Medical Institute on Sexual Health, General Information, studies, statistics, more.
Click Here

US Centers for Disease Control, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Information. Click Here

PRINT RESOURCES:
Meg Meeker, MD “Epidemic: How Teen Sex is Killing Our Kids”, Lifeline Press.