Physicians should understand the limits of patient confidentiality and the importance of taking a thorough sexual history in the diagnosis and management of a patient with an STD.

In a case where a physician is treating two related patients, he should weigh the harm done by breaking one patient's confidentiality against the harm that patient may inflict on another if that confidentiality is preserved.

Adolescents should receive comprehensive sex education that includes information about both sexual abstinence and contraception.

A physicians urges pediatricians to discuss the risks of engaging in sexual behavior with adolescents and encourage them to practice abstinence.

Physicians treating adolescents need to give them the information to make intelligent and responsible decisions regarding sexual activity and reassure them of patient confidentiality.