Chlamydia infections a hidden sexual epidemic

Health experts say rising rates of chlamydia and gonorrhoea highlight an urgent need for better screening and more research into young New Zealanders' sexual behaviour.

A report on sexually transmitted infections says chlamydia, which usually has no symptoms but can lead to infertility in both sexes, is a hidden epidemic.

The report, by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), says chlamydia cases detected at sexual health clinics rose 13 per cent, from 2870 to 3238, between 2000 and last year.

It says although genital warts are still the most common infection, chlamydia rates are rising rapidly.

Confirmed chlamydia cases at clinics increased each year from 1996 to last year, representing a total increase of 95 per cent in that time.

Information was obtained from 32 sexual health clinics as well as family planning clinics, student and youth health clinics and laboratories in Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty.

Experts say the Ministry of Health is dragging its feet with the sexual and reproductive health plan it initiated last year, describing the plan as too broad and unfocused.

Venereology Society president Kitty Flannery said the health plan needed a much stricter time line.

"When we compare our infection rates to countries like Canada, Australia and Britain we can't even really say why ours are so much worse than theirs because we simply don't do enough detailed research."

The ESR report said New Zealand's chlamydia rates were five times higher than those in Canada and Britain and parts of Australia.

The rate in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty was more than five times higher than that in Australia.

Five times more females aged between 15 and 19 in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty had chlamydia than the same group in Britain.

Areas needing more research included the implications of lowering the drinking age on sexual practice, said Ms Flannery, who is also the nurse manager of Health Waikato's sexual health service.

"We see young women coming into the clinic after the weekend and they are not sure if they had sex or not because they were so drunk."

"They may be accessing alcohol younger than they would be and really getting blotto. Anecdotally, the same thing's happening with the young men."

As well as infertility, chlamydia and gonorrhoea can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease and ectopic pregnancies in women and testicular infections in men.

If detected early the infections can easily be treated with antibiotics.

The director of the Auckland Sexual Health Service, Dr Rick Franklin, said it should be mandatory for cases of sexually transmitted infections diagnosed by laboratories to be reported to the Ministry of Health.

The Government had made a serious mistake by not including the prevention of these infections in its New Zealand Health Strategy, he said.

"They are going to have to try to convince 23 different health boards, many of which are overworked and broke, to put the strategy high on their agendas.

"There may be the best will in the world, but in reality this is a vital health issue for young New Zealanders that is just going to get buried."

nzherald.co.nz/health