Booze fuelling 'health crisis'

Drugs and alcohol are fuelling a "sexual health crisis", according to a new report.

The Independent Advisory Group (IAG) on Sexual Health and HIV calls the increase in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) "disturbing" and has "no doubt" where the blame lies.

IAG Chairman Baroness Gould said: "We applaud the various awareness campaigns for young people around sex, drugs and alcohol but they are not enough in isolation.

"As well as health promotion and prevention messages, all involved should review the areas that potentially encourage the young to use alcohol and drugs, with the associated impact on sexual activity."

The report says young people engaging in risky sexual behaviour are at greater risk of contracting an STI, becoming young parents, failing at school, building up longer-term physical and mental health problems and becoming addicted to alcohol and drugs.

The study said alcohol consumption needs to be cut, both by making it difficult for teenagers to buy it and by getting messages out at a young age.

Baroness Gould said: "As part of this - and as a bare minimum - the IAG believes schools must provide PSHE (personal, social and health education) that helps young people negotiate today's personal, social and health issues. This should be a statutory requirement."

The IAG also recommends reviewing advertising regulations which forbid showing condoms before 9pm (except Channel 4, which can show condoms from 7pm) or unwrapped condoms before 10.30pm.

The report found STI rates have risen greatly over the past 12 years, with chlamydia and HIV both increasing by 300 per cent, gonorrhoea by 200 per cent, and syphilis by 2,000 per cent

It says: "In a single act of unprotected sex with an infected partner, adolescent girls have a 1 per cent chance of acquiring HIV, a 30 per cent chance of getting genital herpes, and a 50 per cent chance of contracting gonorrhoea."

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.