Page Content
Shelley Svidal
Some strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) have joined tobacco, sunlight and asbestos as known carcinogens—and contagious ones at that. In fact, viruses, including sexually transmitted ones like HPV, may account for 15 per cent of cancer diagnoses each year.
A recent report by the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health suggests that schools should be doing more to educate students about sexually transmitted diseases. Released in October, Sexual Health in Canada provides the first-ever comprehensive, national, statistical portrait of Canadians’ sexual and reproductive health, with particular emphasis on adolescents and youth.
While Alberta fares relatively well in comparison with other provinces, some findings stand out:
• Chlamydia, which can lead to subfertility or infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and ectopic pregnancy, is the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection among 14- to 24-year-olds in Alberta, with the infection rate doubling between 1998 and 2002 for females aged 15 to 19.
• Youth aged 14 to 24 accounted for 50 per cent of gonorrhea cases in Alberta between 2000 and 2004.
• Nineteen Alberta youth under 25 years were diagnosed with HIV in 2003.
• The pregnancy rate among teens in Alberta (30 per 100,000 females) is higher than the national average (27 per 100,000 females), and Alberta females under 20 are more likely to give birth than to have an abortion (80 abortions per 100 live births).
• Forty per cent of sexually active 15- to 24-year-olds in Alberta report that they do not use condoms, compared with 38 per cent nationally.
The authors acknowledge the important role of schools in educating young people about sexual and reproductive health. At the same time, they point out that the lack of a national curriculum has resulted in a patchwork of sexual and reproductive health education across the country.
"Education and curriculum development are primarily within the bounds of provincial/territorial jurisdiction, thus the incorporation of SRH information into school curricula is not federally mandated and there are no national standards that require SRH education in schools. While every provincial/territorial curriculum includes some SRH education and many have adopted components of the Canadian Guidelines for Sexual Health Education developed by Health Canada, the information that is presented differs substantially across the country," the authors write.
Curriculum delivery is also problematic, the authors continue. "A number of Canadian studies suggest that the quality and quantity of sexual health education provided through schools is largely inadequate. A recent report suggests that many schools and school districts are not fully implementing their sexual health curricula and do not have the resources to provide adequate support, coordination and referrals to preventative services. The report also indicated that students received between 3 and 8 hours a year of instruction in sexual health issues and that public health nurses are available to schools for 5 hours a month on average with just one hour allocated to sexual health. The study also found problems with the delivery of the curricula in many jurisdictions, as teachers shied away from several key issues and many schools did not provide adequate instructional time and/or had insufficient availability of resources and materials."
In Alberta, parents have the right to exempt their children from school instruction in human sexuality education.
Sexual Health in Canada is available from the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health at www.cfsh.ca.
Also In the News
