U.S. herpes rates remain high: CDC

JoAnne Allen
Tue Mar 9, 2010

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 16 percent of Americans between the ages of 14 and 49 are infected with genital herpes, making it one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday.

The CDC estimates that more than 80 percent of people with genital herpes do not know they are infected.

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This statewide motivational fitness program is endorsed by the Governor and offered at no cost to all elementary and middle schools. 

At a time when obesity is a top health issue, Shape Up offers schools an activity-based educational experience which promotes healthy lifestyles.

As school-based health centers look for opportunities to build meaningful partnerships with school faculty and administrators, this program offers a timely and important call to action that everyone can embrace.

Last spring, more than 79,000 students accepted the Shape Up challenge!

Mark your calendar for the next registration cycle in January, 2011!

Learn more at www.shapeupacrossoregon.org

SYNOPSIS

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

REVIEW
http://bookjourney.wordpress.com/

Hannah’s story, while fictional, brings up a valid and important topic.  High school years are hard.  Within the pages of this book you discover that it is not one person or one event that sends Hannah spiraling downward.  As you read, while some of what happened to Hannah is hurtful, I didn’t find where it was intentionally so.  No one in the story knew how fragile Hannah was.  Perhaps someone knowing would have changed the outcome, perhaps not.

This book is a good reminder of how we treat others.

The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, January, 2010

This is a gathering of the latest updates on the rise of teen pregnancies in the US.

Courtesy of MSNBC.com, February 19, 2010

By Kari Huus

After declining for 15 years, the teen pregnancy rate is now on the rise in the United States, which has by far the highest rate in the industrialized world. The number of pregnancies among girls age 15 to 19 increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006, showed a study of the most recent data collected by the federal government and the Guttmacher Institute, the non-profit research group in New York that released the report last month.

Reasons behind the rise are debated, but some blame increasing poverty and an emphasis on abstinence-only sex education. The Guttmacher Institute notes that declining teen pregnancy rates first started to stall out about a decade ago when programs promoting abstinence, without offering education about birth control, became more widespread.

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