Sexual health

Campaigns have tried to warn people about the serious complications that can result from sexually transmitted infections (STIs) but it seems people are still taking risks with their sexual health.

Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) show that there was a six per cent increase in the total number of new STIs diagnosed in 2007 compared to 2006.

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Promiscuous sexual relationships are said to be partly to blame for the increase, and campaigners have said that to prevent STIs people should have fewer sexual partners and avoid overlapping relationships.

Young people aged 16 to 24 could benefit the most from this message, with the greatest STI burden falling in this age group.

Professor Peter Borriello, director of the HPA's centre for infections, said that "substantial numbers" of young people remain "undiagnosed, untreated and unaware of the risk they pose to their own health and that of their sexual partner".

While just one in eight of the population are aged 16 to 24, this age group accounts for around half of all newly diagnosed STIs in the UK - 65 per cent of all chlamydia; 55 per cent of all genital warts and 50 per cent of gonorrhoea infections diagnosed in Gum (genitourinary medicine) clinics last year.

Sexual health messages also need to reach young gay men; with HPA data revealing that there has been a substantial increase in the number diagnosed with an STI over the past decade.

There has been more than a doubling of HIV diagnosed between 1998 and 2007 and almost a tripling of gonorrhoea diagnoses.

With the rising tide of STI diagnoses, strategies are urgently needed to improve the UK's sexual health.

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