Terrence Higgins Trust Young Leaders project launches sex & relationship education campaign for young people

Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) Young Leaders Project is launching the ‘You Know You’ campaign today. The campaign is calling for young people across England to get involved in a new sex and relationship education project.
THT is looking for 13-19 year olds in London, Eastern England, the South East, the South West, the West Midlands, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside to get involved. Each area needs a board of twelve young people working on a grant giving scheme which funds sex and relationship education (SRE) projects. The aim is for young people to educate their peers so all the projects funded will be created and run by other teenagers.
As well as increasing knowledge on sexual health, the project will help young people develop the skills to make informed and healthy decisions around relationships and sex. It will also build their vocational and project management skills.

Gareth Davies, Young Leaders Project Manager at Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) said “The UK has the worst sexual health in Western Europe so we wanted to take a fresh approach to sex and relationships education. The Young Leaders project will be run by young people, for young people, and we aim to make a real difference. If you’re interested in getting involved, please come along to one of our events and find out what it’s all about! " THT is particularly keen to involve people who are disproportionately affected by sexual ill-health in the project, including those from minority ethnic groups as well as gay and bisexual young men.
Those who are interested in joining should sign up to attend one of the events being held across the country. For further information about this please visit www.tht.org.uk/youknowyou

Dramatic advice on safe sex

GETTING the message of safer sex to pupils is the aim of a new production organised by Ware based charity Herts Aid.The HIV and Aids support group is using a £5,000 grant from pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to educate teenagers about the dangers of unprotected sex.Outreach worker Steve Adair: "There are three main objectives we want the production to get across... how taking drugs or alcohol lead to a loss of inhibition and increase the dangers of unprotected sex, how sexually transmitted infections can easily be spread and the importance of always wearing a condom for safer sex."

Safe-sex drive gets results as disease rate falls

THE Lothians has bucked the national trend with a fall in the number of sexually-transmitted infections recorded this year. Cases of chlamydia and gonorrhoea in the region dropped by nearly ten per cent, despite a rise across Scotland generally.
The fall follows a series of controversial initiatives in the Lothians, including giving condoms to children as young as 13 and providing free home-test kits for chlamydia. Last year, more people were diagnosed with genital herpes and chlamydia in the region than at any time since 1997.

Rise in STDs hits teens hard

The number of sexually transmitted diseases is rising across the St. Louis area, most notably among teenagers and young adults.In the city of St. Louis, for example, the number of chlamydia cases climbed from 3,206 in 2002 to 4,581 last year. Of those, 41 percent were people 15 to 19 years old.In St. Louis County, 7,100 residents were diagnosed last year with either chlamydia or gonorrhea, up from 4,821 in 2002. About 70 percent of them were 15 to 24 years old. The two diseases account for nearly two-thirds of all communicable diseases that were reported in the county, exceeding even common ailments such as influenza and chicken pox.

Sex disease screening tests urged for college students

Students at an East Yorkshire college were today being offered free tests for chlamydia in a bid to combat the spread of England's most prevalent sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Staff from the Chlamydia Awareness Screening Programme for Hull and East Riding (Caspher) were on the Bridlington campus of East Riding College to speak to students about the dangers of the disease and carry out on-site screening.Students providing a urine sample to take part in the test were entered in a draw to win an iPod Shuffle.Participants could provide a sample on site or take it away and post it for analysis.The sexual health promotion team organising the programme is due to carry out the same procedure at the college's Beverley campus from 10am to 4pm tomorrow.The move into the East Riding follows a successful screening programme in Hull. Of the 1,600 people tested in the city, one in six men and one in eight women tested positive.

What should be done to stem the rise in STIs

The government has done much to raise the profile of sexual health but more can be done, says David Evans Figures published by the HPA over the summer showed a rise in new diagnoses of almost all sexual infections, with the exception of gonorrhoea. This is to be expected. Advertising about the availability and need for testing is increasing and testing venues, especially for chlamydia and HIV, have extended outside of the usual GU services. More testing means increased diagnoses.
However, are the UK governments doing enough to stem the rise in STIs? There is a lot in favour of answering this question positively. Much has been done to raise the profile and status of sexual health, provide money for service provision, and even acknowledge when things go wrong (House of Commons Health Committee Report on Sexual Health, 2003).