05/02/2004

Casual holiday encounters threaten UK's sexual health

Casual sex between young people while on holiday is leading to a big rise in the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, the British Medical Association (BMA) has said.

The report's authors surveyed 1,500 travellers between the ages of 16 and 35 at Ibiza airport, as they were preparing to return home to the UK – and found that the proportion of visitors having unprotected sex increased over the three survey years. The association now called for "urgent steps" to be taken to protect the sexual health of millions of young people travelling abroad. Tour operators, airlines, and events organisers all need to get involved, it said.

The BMA-led three-year study found that one-in-four men and one-in-seven women have more than one sexual partner while holidaying on the island.

Just under half of those travelling without a sexual partner had sex during their stay, but over 60% of them said they always used a condom. One-in-four men (26%) and one-in-seven women (14.5%) had sex with more than one person; 11% of men and 3% of women had sex with six or more partners.

Given that over 250,000 young people from the UK visit the island every year, the authors concluded that this was a “substantial conduit" for the transmission of sexually transmitted infections between countries.

(gmcg)

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