Condoms only offer about 50% protection against chlamydia. Chlamydia infects 10% of under-25′s in Britain and it’s rising. In women, Chlamydia is a cause of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, which scars the Fallopian tubes, causing infertility. 70% of women don’t even know they’ve had Chlamydia. Thats why its called the ‘silent sterilizer’. Even if Chlamydia is picked up later by screening, the damage has usually been done.
Doctors admit condoms are only 50% -60% effective against Chlamydia.
A couple of years ago, the Government found that around 10% of young women in two pilot studies who were screened by their GPs tested positive for Chlamydia: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2002/10/08/hchlam08.xml
In some areas of the country one in five teenagers is thought to be infected, and the Government have initiated a wider screening programme, relying on volunteers. However, Chlamydia is only 12% of all ST infections. The Office for National Statistics reported: ‘Between 1991 and 2001, the number of new episodes of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) seen in Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) clinics in England, Wales and Northern Ireland doubled from 669,291 to 1,332,910. Young people, in particular females under the age of 20, bear the burden of sexually transmitted infections.’ http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=721
Avert, a large AIDS charity, say that there were 1.5 million attendances at Genital-Urinary Medicine clinics in 2002, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, up 15% (they say) on 2001. http://www.avert.org/stdstatisticuk.htm
The ONS say in the above report: ‘The sexual health of adolescents in the UK is poor.’
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