We’re Number One

I don’t know if the United States is necessarily number one in the world for Socially Transmitted Infections (STIs) ... but we must be close … at least on a percent of population basis.  The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta recently disclosed that the total STI cases in the U.S. (in 2008) had increased 19.7 million to 110.2 million prevalent cases … costing about $16 billion a year in health-care costs alone (see: CNS News Story).  About half of this increase (9.8 million) were in our 15-to-24 age group.  Since the rate of new STI infections each year approximates about 20 million, one can estimate that the number of prevalent cases in this country is now (in 2013) rapidly nearing 200 million.  If this were one case per person (which it apparently isn't), this would total well over half the population of the U.S.  … a staggering number and one that could well move this country into the vanguard of STI cinfections world-wide.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, in 2009 the United States’s education system's worldwide rankings were 31st out of 74 in mathematics, 23rd out of 74 in science, and 17th out of 74 in reading (see: Wikipedia Entry).  I suspect these poor showings must mean that our children have something else to do besides studying.