Sadly, CDC study overlooked Hispanic women

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Behold the spectacle of the incredible invisible Hispanic woman. She and her sisters walk among us, over 20 million strong, young and old, U.S.-born and immigrant, legal and illegal, yet undetectable to the mainstream eye.This month we heard about the "Hidden Epidemic" -- a major public-health crisis affecting one in every four teen-age girls -- when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study estimating 3.2 million young women between the ages of 14 and 19 are infected with the human papilloma virus, chlamydia, herpes simplex virus and/or trichomoniasis.Media accounts made it clear these shocking numbers, gleaned from 838 randomly chosen study participants, were even worse for black women. A stunning 48 percent of those young women were infected with one or more STDs, compared to 20 percent of white women.And the 20 million Latinas -- just those counted by the U.S. Census' last tally in July 2006, that is -- well, they just don't exist. At least not in this "nationally representative study."Apparently, "insufficient numbers" of Hispanic women were served in the California high-school-based clinics and the New York City clinics studied by the CDC to make any estimates about STD rates among Latinas.Really? The CDC and most media outlets covering the report's release went to great pains to point out the study didn't include any STD prevalence data on teen-age boys, but no one blinked at the glaring omission of the country's fastest growing ethnic group?It's true, the big four STDs are a drop in the bucket compared with major chronic diseases -- such as obesity, diabetes and asthma -- decimating Hispanics. To its credit, the CDC in recent years has painstakingly researched, reported on and reached out -- even in Spanish -- to tell Hispanics how to prevent these illnesses. But leaving Latinas out of this highly publicized report -- "the clearest picture to date of the overall STD burden in adolescent women" -- undermines the CDC's well-intentioned efforts to make us aware these STDs are everywhere, often go unnoticed and undiagnosed, and cut across racial and ethnic lines.According to the CDC's Office of Minority Health, obtaining data for Hispanics is too hard because of "their relatively small numbers in the population and geographic dispersion" -- and the lack of "culturally and linguistically appropriate data collection materials and bilingual interviewers."CDC officials should check out the latest statistics.A Pew Research Center report, "Statistical Portrait of Hispanics in the United States, 2006," found that of the 45 million Hispanics counted, 61 percent were native-born. Of those under 18, 75 percent reported themselves predominantly English-speaking.We could argue about perceived barriers all day. Instead, let me tell you why anyone who isn't a Gomez, Hernandez or Rodriguez should even care about STD rates in Hispanic women.How about this? After 14 years of declining teen-pregnancy rates, between 2005 and 2006 the birth rate for all girls between 15 and 19 rose 3 percent. The CDC estimated the rate for Hispanic girls was 2 percent.Or let's talk about the biggest biggie: HIV/AIDS, which is staging a comeback as a result of the misguided belief it is now curable with drug cocktails. In 2006, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found new AIDS cases worsening only among Latinos -- compared with all other racial/ethnic groups. Their cases doubled from 2001 to 2004, with Latinas' new infections jumping from 23 percent to 51 percent in that time period.The bottom line: 20 million Juanas, Rosas and Marias are not invisible. Neither the CDC nor anyone else can afford to ignore the sexual health of 20 million Hispanic women.In fact, lots of them will have sex with Toms, Dicks and Harrys. Or, as I like to think of them, your sons, brothers and fathers. Heck, some of the 20 million might even hook up with your moms, sisters and daughters.And the STDs that'll cross cultural barriers just happen to be colorblind. (Esther J. Cepeda is a director at the United Neighborhood Organization, a Chicago-based nonprofit dedicated to ensuring Hispanics' success in the United States. She may be reached at ecepeda(at)uno-online.org.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)