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This government is still afraid of what it sees as a vote loosing issue.

Remember Blair is a convert to Catholicism.

Mean while a whole generation of young people are growing up unaware of the risks that they may be taking.

what is scarier than your government being blissfully unaware of a potential epidemic amongst young people? ...not a reet lot

Gonorrhea
Chlamydia
Syphilis
Herpes
Genital Warts
Hepatitis B
HIV

and if that lot dosnt get you bird flu will :rolleyes:

If any local school is failing our children in this way we should all know about it, that way, there is the possibility of changing the situation. If this sort of thing is going on then it is no wonder that we have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the country.

How about performing a public service and naming the offending institution? If you feel iffy about it, PM me and I will name it for you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by shakermaker

what is scarier than your government being blissfully unaware of a potential epidemic amongst young people? ...not a reet lot

How about a government that is aware and still does nothing? Now that is scary!

This may not be a popular idea either but what about the parents' responsibility in all this? In my day it wasn't down to the school to teach children about sex, safe or otherwise, it was up to the parents. Unfortunately this isn't an ideal world and parents don't seem to be able to talk to their children about such things, or maybe they themselves are ignorant.

I can remember the hooha when sex education was introduced into schools and parental ractions such as "I don't want my child knowing about things like that!" Well excuse me Mrs but if you aren't going to tell them and you don't want the school to do it they will end up learning it all from friends and experimentation and smutty jokes which takes away all the aspect of love and committed relationships.

I've heard the theory that "In utopia if everyone only had one sexual partner there would be no sexually transmitted diseases........" oh yeah? Tell that to a child born with HIV. Tell that to someone who was treated by an HIV+ dentist who didn't wwear gloves. Tell that to someone who picked up rubbish from the garden amngst which was a filthy syringe...........

I think what I'm trying to say is that ignoring things and hoping they will go away is never the answer.

Have you seen the poster in the doctors which shows how quickly chlamydia can spread from just one person?

Yesterday my daughter told me that there's a "sexy bus" at Moorhead and they are giving out free condoms.

I have to agree with all of your comments so far. Anyone who has read the thread 'Alarming Health Stats' in the archives of the Hints, Tips and Advice section will know that this is a subject which I take great interest in. Now for the government bit...

For donkeys years money has been put into the NHS for general services etc. Sexual health services were not seen as a priority. In the last 5 years the government have been appalled by the number of STI's spreading through this country. We have seen a re-emergence of Syphillis, Chlamydia affects roughly 4 out of 10 16-24 year olds (both males and females) Gonorrhoea tends to happily co-exist with Chlamydia and about half of the people who have Chlamydia will also have Gonorrhoea. HIV numbers have risen tremendously and is more prevalent amongst heterosexuals. In 2001 the government brought out its first National Strategy for Sexual Health. This documented plans to upgrade sexual health services, make them more accessible and tackle the growing numbers of Chlamydia and other STI's.

It was followed up in 2003 with Guidelines for GPs with special interest in STI's and the pilot study for opportunistic Chlamydia screening which was started in 2000, has now been rolled out to several health authorities. Honestly we are finding Chlamydia, especially in the young, at a rate that you would not believe. So the government is doing something...........

Unfortunately it is nowhere near enough. You see, what has happened is that the sexual health services have received so little for so long that they will need a massive amount of cash to actually treat and screen the number of people who need it. There are now waiting lists for GU Clinics...... A massive campaign like the one in the 80's is needed now to combat HIV. The government are well aware of this but they won't do it. This is because the sexual health service will be swamped with people coming for testing and advice. Due to the run down nature of the services, they would not be able to cope with mass screening. They struggled to cope with the 80's campaign, so the government, even though they have been lobbied by the people who work in sexual health, won't do it.....

Anyone who wants current figures for STI's will be able to find them on the Health Protection Agency website, the Dept of Health website also contains the above sexual health strategies. Have a read of 'alarming health stats thread' it was posted nearly 2 years ago, that may give you extra info. I will be looking at the effects of HIV in Pregnancy in january for dissertation for my BSc, so this is a topic very close to my heart....:D

For anyone who's interested here's the link to 'Alarming health stats'

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/s...g+health+stats

:D

Minister of Health Patricia Hewitt admitted on a recent Panorama programme, that like Lettie said, urgent funding for STD clinics has been delayed because the clinics can't cope with the numbers of people already using them, and fear even more over stretching of an already under funded sector of the health service.

The programme makers called every STD clinic in the country, and the earliest appointment was in a month, the latest was in eleven weeks. In the meantime these people, who obviously had fears something was wrong, could be infecting other people, including spouses and partners.

All this could be lessened by by a mass education programme, about how people should be protecting themselves. I recently complained about a glossy magazine that was delivered through my letter box, it was filled with statistics about the local NHS.

I know where I would much rather that money be spent, health education.

Hmm the words stable doors, horses, and bolted come to mind. IF more was spent initially on prevention then they wouldn't be so overburdened trying to cope with cure.

I do think that sexual health should be taught in schools, as part of a programme that shows sex should be part of a loving, commited relationship, but when it isn't protection is vital. I think in this case young people's rights are more important than parent's rights to decide what their children are being taught. People are living with the consequences right now.

It's good that Moor Head was visited by a bus giving out information, [do we know who this was?] but in the meantime a whole generation are growing up unaware of the risks to their health they are putting themselves at.

I probably should have said that apart from the parents who are themselves ignorant (and not just on this subject) and bringing up another generation of ignorance which spirals, what I see as a problem is the parents who are all "no, no, no schools mustn't teach anything about sex" but then fail in their duty as parents to do so themselves.

I'm the same age as you Garinda and you're right - when we were at the age when we wanted to experiment HIV was huge news. It scared the living daylights out of me - as it should!

But I do agree with Willow - parents have got to take some responsibility for sex education.

It is very interesting from the official treatment figures to see that after the last mass media HIV campaign in the 80's, that although the figures for all STI's increased due to worried people turning up for testing, they then fell to startlingly low levels as people started to protect themselves.

A similar campaign today would initially increase the workload of GU clinics and stretch an already overworked and underfunded service, but then the knock on would be a decrease in STI's. Surely a mass campaign, with funding set aside for the initial onslaught would produce results.

Interestingly, these same figures show an increase in STI's right after the second world war, when our lads came home......:D

Teenagers today do seem as interested in horizontal sports as when long ago and just within memory I was.
It is an important thing that we realise that to protect all our children then, as Rindy has already suggested that they are encouraged to put safety first, a difficult thing with all those hormones flowing through young and healthy bodies, after all nature is set against abstinence it wants them to breed. It isn't a case of promiscuity therefore it is our responsibility to encourage them to act responsibly, difficult for both parties when,
a/ It's embarrassing trying to tell your children not to do what you wanted to do when you were their age.
b/ They do actually at that age feel invulnerable to any thoughts of death and disease affecting them and lets face it when we were their age we thought it was our generation that invented sex, buried our heads in the ground at the thought that our parents could possibly have had as much enjoyment at that age.

So on and on goes the cycle, it is our turn to wring our hands and worry and their turn to grasp at life and it's joys.

Without becoming strict and locking up our daughters (an impossible task, ever tried to keep a cat on heat in the house? They have ways of escaping from your best efforts just when you think you can relax).

Encouraging pride in themselves without being too critical when they show their natural failings would be a big help but just as difficult, they will always listen to and mimic their peers before they will allow themselves to learn from our nagging, erm, experience.

All We can say to these young experimenters is:-

Please remember it is your life you won't get another one to live, so whenever possible please take care of yourself, and have some respect for your own and your partners body learn to practice safe sex, that way one day you can sit at a keyboard somewhere worrying about what your children are up to.