Kiss and tell: breaking the silence on sexual health

From HIV/AIDS to chlamyidia.. if as a nation we are more sexually active, shouldn't we be more savvy about sexual infections?

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have been around for as long as sex has, but how come we take so little care about them?

With over 42 million people worldwide now living with HIV, the AIDS epidemic is almost out of control. Although public attention was gripped in the 1980s by tombstone advertisements and warnings of doom, current efforts to focus public attention on the domestic epidemic often go unheard.

And what about gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis, which contributed to the more than 1.5 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections last year in the UK alone? All of these STIs can cause long-term health problems including cancer, infertility and heart disease. They are a threat to the public health and the public purse. So if as a nation we are more sexually active, shouldn’t we be more savvy about sexual infections?

Although science has a big part to play in finding cures and vaccines for all STIs, sexual health experts face even bigger challenges in helping to prevent infections, from poor sex education in schools to cultural reservations about contraception. Join this discussion which will explore how the UK can move forward to tackle STIs whilst having to overcome educational, cultural and religious barriers.
Join Dr Kevin Fenton (Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre), Neil Gerrard MP (All Party Parliamentary Group on AIDS) and Lisa Power (Terrence Higgins Trust)in this discussion to explore how we can move forward to tackle STIs whilst having to oversom educational, cultural and religious barriers.

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