The incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is rising among young people and could be linked to alcohol abuse, the director of the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC) said yesterday.
Dr Darina O'Flanagan presented the NDSC annual report for 2003 to the Minister for Health and Children, Ms Harney.
The report stated that STIs continued to rise and notified numbers in 2002 were the highest for any year on record. They increased by 8 per cent from 9,703 in 2001 to 10,471 in 2002.
The report said the increase in 2002 was likely to be associated with an increase in unsafe sexual behaviour. Dr O'Flanagan said the reason for this was not clear.
"But there has been a lot of concern about alcohol consumption. I think most people are aware of the dangers of STIs but, of course, with alcohol they lose all inhibitions. Chlamydia is just rising and rising. This is a major cause of infertility in young women and they need to be aware of the consequences and need better testing," she said.
Ms Harney commented: "GPs tell me the incidence of prescribing the morning-after pill for the teens has increased and in many cases they can't remember what they did the night before. There is serious abuse of alcohol and we need to deal with it."
Dr O'Flanagan said there was a dramatic increase in syphilis in the 30 to 39 age group, which peaked in 2002 among homosexual men. However, the general trend for STIs was highest among young people.
The report also showed a 10 per cent increase in the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases. In the report, Dr O'Flanagan said serious consideration should be given to making HIV a mandatory notifiable disease using anonymous identifiers to safeguard confidentiality. She said it was a very sensitive issue. A decrease in the quality of data on HIV in 2003 was a cause for concern. In 10 per cent of cases they did not know the risk factor.
Asked if HIV and TB infections were being brought in from outside the country, the director said it was a common feature in most European countries.
There was about a 60 per cent uptake in voluntary screening. It had been shown that if it was made easy for people to obtain screening and made clear it would not affect them if they stayed in the country, they would go for screening, she said.
Ms Harney said it was important not to create fear and feed those who wanted to stir up racism.