Good aphrodisiac news for Absolutely No One today comes courtesy of specialist staff in infectious diseases at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland who say that sexually transmitted infection rates for diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea are continuing to rise in what’s being dubbed a “sustained increase particularly in young people” statewide; where statewide is just acting as a neat microcosm of the country’s growing problem in miniature. A Shetland epidemic of carnal contagion.
A report in today’s Herald has revealed that rates of both HIV and chlamydia are continuing to rise among Queensland Youths, with 18,340 diagnoses of the latter recorded in the last year according to Queensland Health.
Dr Andrew Redmond, specialist at The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, said that these new statistics “really reflect people not using condoms as much as they should, and that looking after sexual health is maybe something we think other people have to do. Or maybe it is that teaching people how to negotiate safer sex is something we need to concentrate on.
Some of these diseases can be asymptomatic, so it is also important for us as doctors and other healthcare professionals to think about screening patients for sexually transmissible infections because, if you have an asymptomatic infection, it can be damaging, but you could also be passing it on to others because you don’t know you have it.”
Dr. Redmond points out that that because talking about sex with your parents or that teacher who’s just a little too interested in sharing can be #totes emb (arrassing) sexual health continues to be something of a taboo. Dr. Redmond then uses an accessible analogy about burgers and automobiles to describe young people’s laissex-faire [typo, but I’m keeping it] attitudes toward sexual health.
“People make decisions about sex in a way that they might not make decisions about buying a car or even buying a hamburger. People feel under pressure at times when they make those decisions [about sex] and if we haven’t taught people to make better decisions, then people can be at risk.“
A survey conducted among 50,000 Australian men last year revealed that 61% admitted to never being tested for STIs, and that three quarters of known cases occur among people aged between 15 and 29 years of age.
The more you know.
You can find your nearest sexual health clinic using this fun interactive map here.
