Madam, - Your report of October 10th on the UNFPA's State of the World Population 2003, asserted that Ireland's teenage pregnancy rate is the second highest in the EU. The UNFPA report cited in no way supports that assertion.
The Report lists only births to teenage mothers. Pregnancies would have to include births, abortions and miscarriages. And only if this data were available for all countries listed could one validly make comparisons between countries. Countries with high teenage births could have low numbers of abortions and vice versa.
The comments on sexually transmitted diseases by Fiona O'Malley, TD, are also misleading in context, suggesting that Ireland's STD rate is also high by international standards. There were 9,703 new cases in 2001 recorded by the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC), admittedly higher than in the past, an infection rate of 247.7 per 100,000 population. This compares with a rate of 1,343 for England, and about 700 for Northern Ireland and Wales for the same year.
Ms O'Malley also mentions rising HIV cases. If she reads the NDSC reports carefully, she will see that only about 25 per cent of HIV cases detected last year were Irish citizens. - Yours, etc.,
E. Ó RAGHALLAIGH, Dalkey, Co Dublin.