MMWR – Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

1. Sexual Experience and Contraceptive Use Among Female Teens — United States, 1995, 2002, and 2006–2010

CDC
Division of News & Electronic Media           
(404) 639-3286

Teen pregnancy can best be prevented by delaying the initiation of sexual activity. When this is not possible, sexually active teens should consider using highly effective contraceptive methods to avoid unintended pregnancy. Approximately 368,000 births occurred among U.S. teens aged 15–19 years in 2010. The teen birth rate of 34.3 births per 1,000 females and reflect a 44 percent decline from 1990.  Using the National Survey of Family Growth, we found that approximately 60 percent of sexually experienced teens reported current use of highly effective contraceptive methods (i.e., intrauterine device, implant, pill, patch, ring or injectable contraceptive). This was an increase from 47 percent in 1995.  Highly effective method use varied by race/ethnicity, with higher rates observed for non-Hispanic whites (66 percent) than non-Hispanic black (46 percent) and Hispanic teens (54 percent). The increased use of these contraceptives may be a contributing factor to the decline of teen births. 

2. Imported Human Rabies in a U.S. Army Soldier — New York, 2011

New York State Department of Health Press Office
Peter Constantakes
518-474-7354 ext. 1

In August 2011, a recently returned U.S. Army soldier died of rabies in New York state eight months after he was bitten by a dog during deployment to Afghanistan.  Although rabies is preventable by post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) after an exposure, the soldier had not received correct PEP. Canine rabies has been eliminated from the United States but is a risk to residents and visitors of many countries around the globe. More than 95 percent of human rabies deaths worldwide are attributable to canine rabies and occur in Africa and Asia where a high burden of canine rabies exists. This is the first rabies death among U.S. service members since 1974. All persons should avoid contact with potentially rabid animals and seek prompt medical evaluation after any animal bite. International travelers should be aware of the risk for rabies exposures and how to obtain medical care at their destinations.

3. Comparison of Meningococcal Disease Surveillance Systems — United States, 2005–2008

CDC
Division of News & Electronic Media           
(404) 639-3286

The overall incidence of meningococcal disease remains low in the United States. However, we needed to determine if incidence was being underestimated by one of the two surveillance systems (National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) and Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs)) that can track it. Compared with NNDSS, ABCs does not capture ‘probable’ cases and the extent to which ABCs underestimates incidence was previously unknown. Results show that national projections of disease incidence using ABCs data do not substantially underestimate meningococcal disease burden. This is good news since ABCs data are highly specific and used for a variety of policy decisions. Moving forward, it will be important to continue to monitor the contribution of probable cases to meningococcal disease reporting and burden of disease estimates, as use of some of the diagnostic methods that identify probable cases may increase in coming years.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES