Sexually transmitted infections hit the highest levels ever!

According to recent data from Public Health England (PHE), STIs have soared by almost 100% since 2012, with cases for syphilis at their highest level since 1949.  The highest impact is apparently in heterosexuals aged 15-24, black ethnic minorities, and men who have sex with men. (See: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/617025/Health_Protection_Report_STIs_NCSP_2017.pdf )

Quite patently, the Government’s SRE policy is not working. Despite all the teaching – supposedly designed to keep children safe – STIs have reached epidemic level proportions among the nation’s young, and they are suffering. We are all suffering.

In relation to the figures, but clearly unwilling to ‘overplay’ the situation, Dr Michael Brady, medical director at sexual health charity the Terrence Higgins Trust, acknowledged they showed unacceptably high rates of STIs. How perceptive! Having then agreed that we’re facing huge challenges, he went on to say that, ‘we urgently need to address the nation’s poor sexual health and rates of STIs in those most at risk.’ (https://www.metro.news/sexually-transmitted-infections-have-soared-almost-100-since-2012/625331/)

Which, on the evidence, pretty clearly means the nation’s young.

Let’s face it, waving a condom in front of children at an increasingly early age and telling them how to have sex is a clear and demonstrable failure. Not only is it encouraging teenagers to mindless promiscuity without commitment, but it is seriously endangering their longer-term health and wellbeing. As we have pointed out before, of the 27 STIs currently recorded in the UK, not all are treatable, while some, such as gonorrhoea, are becoming increasingly antibiotic resistant.   In fact, whether it’s chlamydia, herpes, syphilis, or HIV, catching any form of STI is very far from a walk in the park!

It is surely time to reassess.  We warn children of the dangers of smoking and of consuming junk food and sugar – so why the silence here?  At the very least, if the government continues to refuse to revise its sex education policy, it needs to ensure that all such teaching carries full and comprehensive warning of the health risks attaching to non-monogamous sex, and of the fact that condoms never provide complete protection against infection.  To do anything less is not just to withhold the truth, but is a form of ideological child abuse

Shared values and Community are good – shared infections are not!