Young people encouraged to talk sex in Tower Hamlets

Young people in Tower Hamlets are being encouraged to attend a sexual health clinic in Bow to get advice on sexually transmitted infections, contraception, relationships and self esteem. The clinic, run by Terrence Higgins Trust on Mondays and Wednesdays, is aimed specifically at under 25s. As well as offering one to one and group advice, the clinic also offers chlamydia and gonorrhoea testing, pregnancy testing and emergency contraception. It also provides breast and testicular exam demonstrations, condoms and condom demonstrations.

One city teenage girl a day has abortion

MORE teenage girls in Edinburgh have had abortions carried out than ever before with an average of one a day now going through the trauma. The record level today sparked renewed calls for changes to sex education in city schools - but with competing demands as to the direction of the changes.

Sexually Transmitted Infections Increasing

In my first blog posting, I tackled the subject of the lack of comprehensive sexuality education in Canadian schools; last week a newspaper article in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper looked at teen pregnancy and abortion. The article entitled "Teen pregnancies drop to a new low, abortions continue decline" was written by public health reporter André Picard and details how "the teenage pregnancy rate has hit an all-time low and that abortion has also fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade"

Global Challenges | Malaysia Health Ministry Cannot Promote Condom Use To Prevent Spread of HIV, Official Says

Malaysia's Ministry of Health cannot openly promote condom use to prevent the spread of HIV because it could be misinterpreted as advocating promiscuity, deputy director for the Ministry of Health Jalal Halil Khalil said Sunday in conjunction with International AIDS Memorial Day, Malaysia's New Straits Times reports. Promotion of condom use will be handed over to nongovernmental organizations, including the Malaysian AIDS Council and its 37 affiliates, Khalil said.

NZ Youth Don't Practise Safe Sex

Latest Research Shows New Zealand Youth Understand Risks But Don't Practise Safer Sex
Females have more sexual partners, have sex earlier & less likely to use condoms Fear of rejection driving unsafe sex - and regrets come later Youth positive about condoms but 'don't roll on' at crunch time. An on-line study into the sexual behaviour and attitudes of young New Zealanders has found that while the respondents understand the risks associated with unsafe sex, there is still a group prepared to compromise their sexual health.

Shock rise in sexual diseases

GPs are being given extra training to help them treat patients with sexual health problems.
The move is part of plans for more GP surgeries to deal with cases instead of hospital clinics, as health services struggle to cope with a huge rise in infections across East Lancashire. Medics in Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley have been swamped by the number of new cases, according to the health ministry.

Training in sexual health advice lacking

One practice nurse in six has not been trained in contraception and sexual health, while 40 per cent have not had updated training in the past two years. The survey of 1,000 practice nurses across England conducted by the National AIDS Trust found that practice nurses are eager to do more to help improve sexual health and are often the first port of call for patients who have sexual health concerns. However, they also felt that they did not have sufficient training or resources to help these patients. In response to the survey, Durex has announced that it will offer 10 practice nurses sexual health training bursaries worth £500 each.

Battle teen pregnancy with science, not ideology

In the United States, teen birth, teen abortion and sexually transmitted infection rates are higher than in most other industrialized countries. In 1999, 48 out of 1,000 U.S. women ages 15 to 19 gave birth -- a rate 11 times greater than in the Netherlands and four times higher than in Germany. The teen abortion rate in the United States is more than three times that of France and nearly seven times that of the Netherlands.

‘Myth of safe sex’ is harming youth, doctor says

MEDFIELD -- On April 26, Montrose School hosted a presentation by Dr. Meg Meeker, author of the book “Epidemic: How Teen Sex is Killing Our Kids.” A pediatrician with a practice in Michigan, Meeker has taken up the cause of debunking the “myth of safe sex” and makes the bold claim that this false message is actually killing kids.

Ugandan reverend shares his story on life with HIV/AIDS

There have been many stories written on people living with AIDS, but this one is unusual. It centers on the experience of a reverend who, to this day, does not know how he was infected. The Rev. Canon Gideon Baguma Byamugisha of the Church of England recently spoke with The Jakarta Post's Agnes Winarti about how he manages to continue living and working despite the virus.

Modernising India shies away from sex education

Ignorance about sex is widespread in the land of the Kama Sutra, where explicit sex acts are celebrated in ancient temple architecture. But at home, mothers hesitate to talk to daughters about something as simple as menstruationMOVES to bring sex out of the closet in largely conservative India have kicked up a morality debate between educators who say sex education will reduce HIV rates, and critics who fear it will corrupt young minds. It’s an emotive issue pitting modernists against conservatives in a country with the world’s highest number of HIV cases at about 5.7 million, a figure that experts say may balloon to over 20 million by 2010. Biology teacher Thelma Seqeira infuriates conservatives in India every time she tells her students about masturbation, condoms and homosexuality.

Increase in cancer rates linked to oral sex

THE sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer also sharply increases the risk of throat cancer among people infected through oral sex, a new study says.The study, involving 300 subjects with and without throat cancer, found that those infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) were 32 times more likely to develop one form of oral cancer than those free of the virus. Although previous research had indicated that the virus caused oral cancer, the new study is the first to definitively establish the link, researchers said."It makes it absolutely clear that oral HPV infection is a risk factor," said Maura Gillison, an assistant professor of oncology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, who led the study published yesterday in The New England Journal of Medicine.The findings could help explain why oral cancer rates have been increasing in recent years, particularly among younger people and those who are not smokers or heavy drinkers, which had long been the primary at-risk groups, experts said.

Kansas to change sex ed policies

The board will replace the abstinence-only curriculum passed last year by conservatives.
TOPEKA The Kansas Board of Education is set to reverse itself again, this time on controversial standards on the teaching of sex education. Those standards, passed last year by the board’s then conservative majority, recommended an abstinence-until-marriage curriculum and the use of parental permission slips before students could take the class.

Indian bar promotes safe sex

A bar has opened in India offering free condoms to drinkers.
The Condom Bar in the northern city of Chandigarh aims to promote HIV awareness.
It is hoped visitors will take the samples without feeling embarrassed.
India still has a very conservative outlook when it comes to topics like sex and HIV/Aids and people generally refrain from talking about these topics.

Sexual health linked to first condom use

Teens who use condoms the very first time they have sex are half as likely to test positive for sexually transmitted diseases several years later, a U.S. study has found.
The survey, released last week, involved more than 4,000 sexually active adolescents who were questioned between 1994 and 2002.
In addition to having lower rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea, the individuals who were followed were 36 per cent more likely to say they had used a condom in their most recent sexual encounter seven years later. Sixty-two per cent of the respondents reported having used a condom when they had intercourse for the first time.

Teen Pregnancies

A recent official report says that pregnancy rates for teenage girls under 16 in the UK continue to rise although the situation is getting better in some areas of the country where significant decreases have been reported.The latest country wide figures from the Office of National Statistics show that 7,917 girls under 16 became pregnant in 2005, only a slight increase from the 2004 figures. Abortions in young teenagers are also on the increase. However the UK teenage pregnancy rate still remains the highest in Western Europe and the government says that they now want to halve the conception rate in 13-17 year olds in England by 2010.

Rapid HIV testing launched in Newcastle

Terrence Higgins Trust, Newcastle Primary Care Trust and MESMAC North East are working together to launch a rapid HIV testing service in Newcastle on May the 1st. The ‘Fastest’ clinic is aimed at gay and bisexual men and will offer a one hour HIV testing service - results from sexual health clinics can take several days.
The aim of the ‘Fastest’ service is to provide an alternative testing environment for people who are not able to access services during the normal working day, or who may be put off by hospitals and traditional sexual health clinics.
Andrew Smith, Associate Director at Terrence Higgins Trust said “This is the first time that a service in Newcastle has been able to give HIV test results within an hour. The clinic is also right in the centre of the city and operates outside normal working hours so it’s quick and convenient. We hope that by making it easier to have a test, more people will come forward.”

HIV men 'having unsafe gay sex'

More than one in three gay men with HIV have unprotected sex, a survey says. The University College London poll of 2,640 men in Manchester, Brighton and London also revealed a fifth of gay men without HIV do the same. Researchers said it was worrying, and called for a renewed push to discourage risky behaviour, the Sexually Transmitted Infections journal said.