In which the AP once again leaves us grasping for the point.

Sexually spread diseases up, better testing cited.

ATLANTA (AP) – Sexually spread diseases—for years on the decline—are on the rise, with reported chlamydia cases setting a record, government health officials said Tuesday.

The increase in chlamydia, a sometimes symptomless infection that can lead to infertility in women, is likely because of better screening, experts said. In 2007, there were 1.1 million cases, the most ever reported, said officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

OK, what’s going on with this article. What’s the news? Is the increase in reported chlamydia cases responsible for STD’s being on the rise generally? Seems to be the case, right? But they give the reason for the increase in chlamydia cases as the development of better testing. But just because we’re FINDING more chlamydia now through better testing doesn’t mean that there’s MORE chlamydia. It just means they’re finding more than they used to because the testing before was admittedly not as good as it is today.

So shouldn’t the headline be something like—”Better testing yields better understanding of true extent of STD’s?

Sexually spread diseases are NOT up. At least not based on the findings of this article. It’s the REPORTED INSTANCES that are up. We don’t know at all whether the disease is on the rise. We only know that REPORTED INSTANCES of it are….which tells us nothing about anything relating to the extent that these diseases have infected people.

It’s like a newspaper not reporting baseball scores and then all of the sudden starting to for the first time and shouting: “Baseball on the rise!”

“Nonsense, Maurice”, as I sometimes say to my son to show that I was paying attention to Madagascar. It’s true. I drive my wife crazy because I sound just like Sasha Baron Cohen’s King Julian when I do it. I have this power.

Anyway. It’s nonsense.

We once again no very little more about anything after reading an AP story than we did prior to doing so.

Thanks.