Almost 1 in 4 adolescents have a sexually transmitted infection (STI). These infections are preventable through safe sexual practices and routine screening. Pediatricians are the first line of clinical care for adolescents and are well positioned to offer sexual and reproductive health care counseling and services to their patients; yet, there is a paucity of sexual health screening provided at routine health supervision visits. This article addresses the epidemiology of STIs in adolescents, reviews the evidence of current clinical practice, presents recommended STI screening from government and medical agencies, and offers strategies to address barriers to providing care for adolescents and for sexual health screening in primary care.

OM Ukraine Odessa invites children with autism and their families to a two-day summer camp.

A team of dentists and volunteers recently visited an orphanage in the Odessa province to fix 75 young smiles.

A change of plans for OM Panama volunteers leads to a powerful prayer meeting.

A Thousand Moons

SA faces its gravest test in over 70 years, to rebuild an economy that was already in a protracted slump after the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, one could be forgiven for believing there's a wedge between the state's main actors tasked with the job of resurrecting a country that may see its jobless rate rise as high as 50%.

Once the coronavirus pandemic is over, the tourism industry will probably find that older, more affluent travellers are more hesitant to do so.

The Black Business Council stood by Minister of Tourism Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane and South Africa's Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment policy.

During Easter, the oldest town in Austria celebrated the life of Jesus and furthered the dream of planting a church.

OM EAST offers a special start to the new school term for hundreds of children in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

OM EAST is publishing Rodney “Gypsy” Smith’s autobiography to help inspire Roma believers in Serbia.

Millie Small, who died Tuesday at age 73 in London, was the first Jamaican artiste to score a hit on the British pop chart. Her version of My Boy Lollipop reached number two in 1964 and was also successful in the United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

MOST people's memories of Millie Small in 1964 are of her climbing international charts with the massive hit song, My Boy Lollipop. But for Dennis Smith, it was her return to Jamaica that year that made the greatest impression.

More than 800 children were impacted by the Festival of Smiles 2011 that took place in the indigenous community of Talamanca, Costa Rica.

OM Costa Rica team members and volunteers share in the joy of giving more than 1,000 indigenous children a dream Christmas.

Participants of OM Costa Rica's Pearl Process programme start their own small groups to impact more women in high-risk communities.

AROUND five people a day are being seen at Covid hubs across Scotland as demand for the service declines.

A 53-year-old man has been arrested in connection with smuggling firearms into the country.

YESTERDAY would have been your birthday. January 24. Six months older than me for six months, I’d remind you. Normally I would have spent the weeks between Christmas and now trying to think of something original to buy you. And then, at the last moment, I’d just buy you another book.

THE most important lesson in life is to always travel in hope rather than expectation. That way the almost inevitable disappointment that follows isn’t quite as crushing. A cheery thought for these troubled times.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended an “in conversation” event with the American sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild at Harvard University.

It was set up by tourism leaders to create an authentic picture of Scotland during the coronavirus lockdown by opening a window to people’s experiences while they stay at home.

Sharing moments of levity and hope from the education world amid the mass disruption of schooling and life from the coronavirus.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans has always had a gothic element. The voodoo culture dates from the African American diaspora, though it’s now mostly for tourists. But this year there was an authentically macabre dimension to Fat Tuesday.

The Meadowbank Stadium was one of the shabbier landmarks in east Edinburgh until it was knocked down last year. A new one is rising from the ashes, looking like one of those massive cruise liners that appear in the Forth.

The free literacy app Khan Academy Kids boosted early literacy skills in children and parents said it improved their home-teaching skills.

One particularly tense staff meeting helped educator Robert Parker rethink how his school celebrated Black History Month.

The Education Department outlines when and how schools must respond to reports of sexual assault and harassment under the Trump administration's interpretation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination.

An Illinois judge has dismissed the nation's first class-action lawsuit against a state high school association over its handling of concussions, ruling that it had made strides in that regard since the filing of the lawsuit.

RADIOACTIVE (12A)

Smaller classes could help bridge the gap between home and school, writes former teacher Marc Vincenti.

Framed prints of Steven Camley's cartoons are available by calling 0141 302 6210.”

Stand-up Romesh Ranganathan is back with a second series of topical comedy show The Ranganation. He talks to Sherna Noah about filming the show in lockdown, the place of comedy in a crisis, and spending so much time with his family.

Serious study is needed to find out why people can't look away from their screens.

University of Texas at Austin researchers find that the presence of your mobile phone in the room is all it takes to crater overall brain power. Here's how to use that to your advantage.

I'm amazed at how reliant this younger generation is on their smartphones. I think it's weird, but you can use that generation's screen addiction to your benefit.

CAN I tell you how I feel? I feel, sometimes, like everyone in my life has suddenly been reduced to flat, distant images on a computer screen, like we’re in Star Trek. And I don’t like it.

Education Week's top English-language learner stories on 2019 explored who's teaching the nation's English-learners and the struggles those educators encounter on the job, how the Trump administration's immigration policies affected students and their families and examined why more schools in the Un

In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.

Source: The Irish Times - Harold Kingston, who runs a dairy farm in Courtmacsharry, Co Cork, with 160 cattle, is typical of the new generation of smart farmers, who have adjusted how they work in response to climate change.

The extent to which young adults' laboratory-confirmed sexually transmitted disease results and self-reported sexual behaviors are consistent has not been assessed in a nationally representative sample.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether young adults' reports of recent sexual behavior (presence of penile/vaginal sex in the previous 12 months) correspond with the presence of laboratory-confirmed nonviral STDs assessed by nucleic acid amplification testing. (Read the full article)

Autism has been associated with pregnancy and birth complications that may indicate a suboptimal prenatal environment. Although the interpregnancy interval (IPI) may affect the prenatal environment, the association between the IPI and risk for autism is not known.

Using full-sibling pairs from a large population, the authors examined the association between autism and IPIs. Second-born children conceived after an IPI of <12 months had more than threefold increased odds of autism relative to those with IPIs of ≥36 months. (Read the full article)

Optimism later in life is protective against a range of health problems. It has commonly been a focus in adolescent mental health promotion. Cross-sectional studies suggest a protective effect against adolescent health risks, but prospective studies have been lacking.

Optimism is somewhat protective against adolescent health risks; the strongest effect was seen against the onset of new depressive symptoms. Its protective effect against heavier substance use and antisocial behavior was modest and only for the highest categories compared to the lowest. Promoting optimism along with other positive aspects of psychological and emotional style has a role in mental health promotion that is likely to be enhanced if an intervention also addresses risk and protective factors in an adolescent's social context. (Read the full article)

The professionalism of physicians can have an impact on patient care and satisfaction and physician career success and is increasingly emphasized in residency training programs.

This study was an examination of the perspectives of families of pediatric patients and of pediatrics residents on the attributes of professionalism in physicians. Important overlaps were found between the attributes of professionalism prioritized by patient families and resident physicians. (Read the full article)

It has been well documented that exposure to tobacco marketing is a risk factor for smoking initiation among youth. However, few studies have tested the specificity of this association.

This study extends findings from other studies and shows (from a longitudinal design) that exposure to cigarette advertising is significantly associated with youth smoking initiation, whereas exposure to advertising for other commercial products is not. (Read the full article)

Although gastroenteritis guidelines describe the need to perform oral rehydration, it remains underused, resulting in excessive use of intravenous rehydration. Other interventions, such as antiemetic administration, vary according to location, often resulting in differences in cost and outcomes.

In this nationwide cohort, intravenous rehydration use varied dramatically. Use was associated with the institution providing care and an increase in the need for future health care provider visits. Use of ondansetron also varied significantly across Canada. (Read the full article)

Most childhood HIV is acquired through perinatal transmission, some of which is preventable. Practitioners need to understand what proportion of perinatally acquired HIV infections are attributable to missed prevention opportunities.

Missed prevention opportunities include lack of early HIV testing for pregnant women; suboptimal use of antiretroviral medications during pregnancy, labor, or delivery or for the neonate; breastfeeding; and vaginal delivery when maternal viral load was ≥1000 copies/mL. (Read the full article)

Spinal muscular atrophy with respiratory distress type 1 (SMARD1) is a progressive, inherited neuromuscular disease manifesting with diaphragmatic paralysis in the first year of life. All patients need mechanical ventilation.

We describe the natural course of SMARD1, developed a scoring system, and defined prognostic values. The clinical outcome of the patients was heterogeneous, and residual enzymatic activity of the IGHMBP2 protein was associated with a more benign disease course. (Read the full article)

Smoking during pregnancy has been related to thicker carotid intima media thickness in young adults, and this was also shown in neonates.

This study is the first to show that the effect of smoking during pregnancy on the vasculature of children is (still) visible at the age of 5 years. Pregnancy appears to be the critical period for this damage to occur. (Read the full article)

Mixed prevalence rates of co-occurring psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions have been reported in children diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD diagnoses remain fairly stable within a continuum, but some do not meet criteria for an ASD diagnosis years after initial diagnosis.

Co-occurring neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions may explain, in part, why the diagnosis of an ASD may change with age. (Read the full article)