Choosing the Best PATH,
Medical Update Addendum
June 20, 2011

Dear Teacher/Facilitator of Choosing the Best PATH,

There have been some recent medical updates that need to be incorporated into your teaching of Choosing the Best PATH.  Choosing the Best PATH has been reviewed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, and found to be medically accurate with these modifications, outlined below:

Student Manual/Leader Guide

1) On page 11, in the last bullet point in the HPV section, please add the following information about the availability of an HPV vaccine that was recently developed for males:

“Males are now also eligible for the HPV vaccine.”

Source:
www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

2) Also on page 11, in the second bullet point that states there are “30 types of HPV”, please replace this with the latest statistic as follows:

“There are 40 types of HPV….”

Source:
www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

3) On page number 13, in the section “Let’s Do Math”, bullets 2 and 3, please provide the latest information as follows:

“The CDC states that each year, there are approximately 19 million new STD infections, and almost half of them are among youth aged 15 to 24.  That equates to 26,027 every day, 1,084 every hour, and one every 3 seconds.”

Source: 
www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/sexualbehaviors/index.htm

4) On page 17 in Leader Guide notes about adoption, please replace outdated terms used to discuss the option of adoption with more current terms as follows:

Additional information: The adoption can be open or closed (meaning information is or is not openly shared between the birth and adoptive families) and this is decided by the birth mother and agreed upon by the adoptive family.

Sources:
www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/adoption.html
www.familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/articles/845.printerview.html
www.childwelfare.gov/admin/glossary

5)  On page 25 in the Leader Guide, please delete and do not state the text that reads:

“Ask:  Is there any way to make the food usable again?  (Put it back in the wrapper, refrigerate it, and the bacteria will die.  It will be almost like new.) Say that this is similar to renewed virginity, when a person who has been sexually active decides to be abstinent until marriage.”

Please also note this important information about using endnotes in all Choosing the Best curricula:

Student Manuals

All references for material contained in the Choosing the Best Student Manuals are contained in endnotes at the back of the Student Manual.

Leader Guides

All references for material contained in “wrap around text” (the text that flows around the embedded corresponding Student Manual page) of the Leader Guides are contained in endnotes at the back of the Leader Guide.   Because there is additional information provided in the Leader’s Guide that is not in the Student Manual, the number and ordering of the endnotes in each of these books is slightly different.  So if you are using the Leader Guide but referencing information that is actually from the Student Manual (even in the embedded Student Manual pages from the Leader Guide), you must go to the back of the actual Student Manual to get the correct reference.