Alarming health stats..

[lettie]

What are your suggestions Anthony S for halting the spread of HIV, Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea and Syphilis (also risen rapidly in the last 2 years). What do you think should be done??

[Tealeaf]

I think Anthony would rather bury his head in a condom

[ellie]

.young girlies paying 30 quid for a butterfly on their bum

its not on my bum its on the bottom of my back hehe

[Tealeaf]

Did you get a discount then?

[ellie]

it was 40 not 30 anyway

[Tealeaf]

I think I'll have a spider tattoo...one of these little fella's...

[lindsay ormerod]

It is scary to think that girls as young as 13 are having their first consensual sex,and the resulting teenage pregnancies are equally alarming.I was classed as an "At Risk" mother because I had my first child at 30,obviously over the hill!But I was asked several times by the medical profession "are you sure this is your first?"Virtually all the ladies on the labour wards were a good deal younger than me;and the majority were into second or even third pregnancies!I wonder if the sex education our children get at school warns them of the emotional,physical,mental and economic effects of teenage pregnancies. It was very basic education when I was at school,would be interested to see how much it's progessed[!]

[WINGY]

Originally Posted by Tealeaf

We know where the problem age-group is, i.e. 16-25 year olds so I would suggest that we combine the very frequent drugs raids on various "nightclubs" with the AIDS test..as everyone is lined up for frisking for the Estacy Tablets stick a needle up in their bum, say "thats it mate, you've just been aids tested...name & address and you'll get your result in a week"......we'll soon find out whose is HIV pos and who ain't.

Aids and h.i.v are not only found in people in this age group though, i think that random testing is one possible way of helping to stop the spread of theses illneses. A more fair way would be to do random testing of any age, starting this in built up areas and cities, say the london underground for example.

[lettie]

The problem with 16-25 year olds is that they see HIV and AIDS as an old persons disease. By the time people actually die of AIDS, they are usually 40+. The newer antiretroviral therapies mean that HIV affected people now have a near normal life span (assuming they don't get run over or anything) Unfortunately, these therapies are very expensive as mentioned in previous posts so we all end up footing the bill. Chlamydia/Gonorrhoea are the diseases which are predominantly affecting 16-25's The 2 infections often accompany one another. Chlamydia is relatively cheap to treat (even cheaper not to catch in the first place) Gonorrhoea has become resistant over the years to the traditional antibiotics used and is more difficult to treat now. It sometimes requires several courses of antibiotics and tests of cure after taking them. The majority of these infections have no symptoms 50% of men with Chlamydia won't know they have it, neither will up to 70% of women. If left untreated it can eventually cause pelvic inflammatory disease in women, which leads to ectopic pregnancies and infertility. If a woman is already pregnant it is highly associated with premature births, infant eye infections (which can be severe) and neonatal pneumonia which can be fatal. In men it can cause epididymo-orchitis (painful infection of yer bits) men can also become infertile and it can cause reactive arthritis requiring months of pain relief and anti inflammatories and physio, not to mention blood tests and specialists. As taxpayers we are paying for people to have these treatments. Would it not be more cost effective to prevent the disease in the first place by having safe sex (and I don't mean tying yer other half to the bed so they don't fall off) Condoms cost pence, these treatments cost millions.....

[ANNE]

10/10 to the Emmerdale team for tackling the issue of chlamydia in recent episodes of the soap.

[Tealeaf]

Until recently, I thought Chlamydia was a fish dish in an Indian restaurant.

[lettie]

Well, I won't be ordering that!!!!!

[Tealeaf]

...the vindaloo version was wicked, so I thought..

[lettie]

Well, I'm very pleased to say that I have finally finished my assignment, finished the essay yesterday and the references and printing today. Although this is a nice meaty topic to get your teeth into - so to speak, the actual assignment consists mostly of costs, statistics and campaigns. Hope it passes, as I really don't fancy doing it again. Thanks for all your opinions, I now have a break until September from my degree, but when I go back, I'm hoping to be looking at drug misuse, so watch this space......

[Tealeaf]

Drug Misuse? What, like beer & baccy?