Teh One Who Knocks
10-25-2018, 10:49 AM
By Anne Gulland, Global health security correspondent - The Telegraph
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/5aXLHQ.jpg
Young people are being urged to use condoms as new figures show that a sexually transmitted infection (STI) is diagnosed in someone aged 15 to 24 years old every four minutes.
The figures are part of a Public Health England (PHE) social media sexual health campaign, Protect Against STIs, which highlights the importance of using a condom to prevent a range of long-term health conditions associated with STIs such as infertility and arthritis.
Figures from PHE show that in 2017 there were around 200,000 diagnoses of STIs. And more than half - 58 per cent - of these diagnoses were in the 15 to 24 age group.
PHE also surveyed young people and found that more than half had had sex with a new partner for the first time without a condom.
The campaign highlights the long-term health issues associated with an STI and urges young people to get regular screening.
https://i.imgur.com/qxBeOBR.png
While the number of cases of STIs in young people has remained static for the last three years the total number of cases of gonorrhea in all age groups has skyrocketed in England in recent years, going up 22 per cent between 2016 and 2017.
In 2016 the World Health Organization warned that the infection was becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and earlier this year, the world’s “worst ever case” of super gonorrhea was diagnosed in a UK patient who picked it up while on holiday in south east Asia.
The infection was not treatable with the two main first-line drugs and the patient had to be admitted to hospital and have a three-day infusion of antibiotics.
Joe Petersen-Camp, a sexual health specialist at Homerton Hospital in east London, said because so many STIs were symptomless regular testing was important.
“Half of men and two thirds of women will have no symptoms of chlamydia so they don’t know they’re infected until they have that test. The worst STI is the one you don’t know about. It’s slowly causing you harm but there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said.
He said while there was no concrete data on whether young people were less likely to use a condom, the increase in some rates of STIs suggested that usage had fallen.
A decrease in condom use could be down to the fact that young people are growing up at time when HIV/Aids is no longer a life sentence and that sex education in schools has focused on reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy and has not highlighted sexual health.
Dr Petersen-Camp said: "Often people who are on a method of contraception are thinking primarily about pregnancy reduction, and not STIs. And there are other ways to prevent HIV now [such as pre-exposure prophylaxis] so that detracts from the need to use condoms."
He said that young people needed to feel confident that they could talk about condoms and that asking a partner to wear one would not "kill the moment" or make sex less enjoyable.
“We need to say that it’s not cool to bully someone into not using a condom and that ‘stealthing’ [removing a condom during sex] is a really shady thing to do,” he said.
As part of its campaign PHE has recruited Sam Thompson, star of Made in Chelsea, to visit bars and clubs to talk to young people about the importance of safe sex.
He said: “I’m on a mission to encourage young people across the country to use condoms. We’re not talking about safe sex or normalising the use of condoms enough.”
Dr Hamish Mohammed, consultant STI scientist at PHE, highlighted the importance of using a condom.
“STIs present a real threat to young people, and without using condoms, young people are putting themselves and their partners at risk of getting an STI.”
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/5aXLHQ.jpg
Young people are being urged to use condoms as new figures show that a sexually transmitted infection (STI) is diagnosed in someone aged 15 to 24 years old every four minutes.
The figures are part of a Public Health England (PHE) social media sexual health campaign, Protect Against STIs, which highlights the importance of using a condom to prevent a range of long-term health conditions associated with STIs such as infertility and arthritis.
Figures from PHE show that in 2017 there were around 200,000 diagnoses of STIs. And more than half - 58 per cent - of these diagnoses were in the 15 to 24 age group.
PHE also surveyed young people and found that more than half had had sex with a new partner for the first time without a condom.
The campaign highlights the long-term health issues associated with an STI and urges young people to get regular screening.
https://i.imgur.com/qxBeOBR.png
While the number of cases of STIs in young people has remained static for the last three years the total number of cases of gonorrhea in all age groups has skyrocketed in England in recent years, going up 22 per cent between 2016 and 2017.
In 2016 the World Health Organization warned that the infection was becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics and earlier this year, the world’s “worst ever case” of super gonorrhea was diagnosed in a UK patient who picked it up while on holiday in south east Asia.
The infection was not treatable with the two main first-line drugs and the patient had to be admitted to hospital and have a three-day infusion of antibiotics.
Joe Petersen-Camp, a sexual health specialist at Homerton Hospital in east London, said because so many STIs were symptomless regular testing was important.
“Half of men and two thirds of women will have no symptoms of chlamydia so they don’t know they’re infected until they have that test. The worst STI is the one you don’t know about. It’s slowly causing you harm but there’s nothing you can do about it,” he said.
He said while there was no concrete data on whether young people were less likely to use a condom, the increase in some rates of STIs suggested that usage had fallen.
A decrease in condom use could be down to the fact that young people are growing up at time when HIV/Aids is no longer a life sentence and that sex education in schools has focused on reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy and has not highlighted sexual health.
Dr Petersen-Camp said: "Often people who are on a method of contraception are thinking primarily about pregnancy reduction, and not STIs. And there are other ways to prevent HIV now [such as pre-exposure prophylaxis] so that detracts from the need to use condoms."
He said that young people needed to feel confident that they could talk about condoms and that asking a partner to wear one would not "kill the moment" or make sex less enjoyable.
“We need to say that it’s not cool to bully someone into not using a condom and that ‘stealthing’ [removing a condom during sex] is a really shady thing to do,” he said.
As part of its campaign PHE has recruited Sam Thompson, star of Made in Chelsea, to visit bars and clubs to talk to young people about the importance of safe sex.
He said: “I’m on a mission to encourage young people across the country to use condoms. We’re not talking about safe sex or normalising the use of condoms enough.”
Dr Hamish Mohammed, consultant STI scientist at PHE, highlighted the importance of using a condom.
“STIs present a real threat to young people, and without using condoms, young people are putting themselves and their partners at risk of getting an STI.”