Warning over increase in STDs

The Government must develop a national sexual health strategy to combat the growing levels of sexually transmitted diseases in young people, campaigners demanded today.

Dublin Aids Alliance and the Red Ribbon Project made the call as they launched a ‘Straight Talking’ advertising campaign to tackle what they described as the general complacency over safe sex among 18 to 35-year-olds.

Ann Nolan, executive director of Dublin Aids Alliance said the number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) had been steadily increasing in the last decade.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre showed a 12.1% increase in STIs between 2003 and 2004, and sex had now become the most common way people contracted HIV in Ireland, she said.

Despite a reduction of almost 10% in the number of HIV infections in 2004, the two voluntary organisations said there were still a significant number of people - 356 last year and 148 in the first half of 2005 – testing positive for a virus which was largely preventable.

“HIV and Aids have virtually disappeared off the political agenda in recent years and the cost of treatment has precluded sufficient investment in prevention and public education,” Ms Nolan said.

“Despite the economic and cultural transformation of Irish society in recent years, our approach to sexual health is severely under-developed.

“Together with the Red Ribbon Project, we urgently call on the Government to adopt a national sexual health strategy and reinvest in prevention strategies,” she said.

“The Government’s current piecemeal approach to sexual health means that programmes and services are delivered in an ad hoc manner with limited inter-sectoral collaboration, planning or development at local, regional or national level.

“This situation means that we have no sense of how current programmes might or might not be reducing sexually transmitted HIV or STIs nationwide,” she said.

Ms Nolan also said the alliance was concerned about the apparent high level of complacency in young people’s attitude to sex.

Ahead of World Aids Day on December 1, Dublin Aids Alliance and the Red Ribbon Project today launched their ‘Do You Choose It?’ campaign which aims to encourage 18 to 35-year-olds to opt for safe sex.

It includes adverts on billboards, buses, DARTs and train stations, as well as postcards and beer mats in bars and clubs in Dublin and Limerick.

The safe sex drive is supported by Durex which has contributed 50,000 condoms for distribution in pubs and nightclubs in the two cities.

Director of the Red Ribbon Project Ann Mason said the campaign was sending a clear message to people to practise safe sex.

“We hope this campaign will challenge the stigma and silence that surrounds HIV, STIs and sexuality in Ireland.

“With nearly 70% of STIs reported between 2003 and 2004 in people below the age of 30 years, we urgently need to start tackling people’s attitudes to HIV/AIDs and STIs.

“Unfortunately we haven’t moved on from the fear of an unplanned pregnancy dominating people’s worries about unsafe sex when really people should be equally worried about HIV and STIs,” she said.