LONDON (Reuters Health) – The Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) renewed warnings on Friday of worsening sexual health in Britain.

In the week preceding World Aids Day, it said that the year 2000 saw a record 3616 reports of HIV infection while diagnoses of gonorrhoea, syphilis and chlamydia had all more than doubled between 1995 and 2000.

Gonorrhoea cases rose from 10,204 to 20,663, chlamydia from 30,877 to 64,000, while syphilis cases shot up 145% from 136 to 333.

The trends were particularly worrying in young people, the PHLS said. One in every 100 women between 16 and 19 years old was diagnosed with chlamydia last year and as many as 1 in 11 sexually active young women might have the infection without knowing it.

Between 20% and 30% of teenage females who were diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection at a clinic were back with another infection within 18 months, with similar figures amongst young men, the PHLS said.

Dr. Gwenda Hughes, head of PHLS section on sexual transmitted infections, told Reuters Health that new safe sex campaigns were needed to combat complacency and promote condoms.

"If you look at the mid-to-late 1980s, in the wake of the HIV campaigns, we saw a very sharp decline in diagnoses of gonorrhoea and syphilis, indicating that more people were practising safer sex during that era."

"I think what you are seeing now is complacency setting in. It is a long time since people were made aware of HIV and AIDS. Also, you are seeing new generations who have never received those strong safe sex messages."

She said the increase in gonorrhoea was particularly worrying as this infection was a good marker of changing sexual behaviour, indicating that more people were having unsafe sex. "Clearly, if people practice unsafe sex then they are also potentially exposing themselves to a risk of acquiring HIV," she warned.

Dr. Hughes added in a statement that among gay and bisexual men, between 1300 and 1500 HIV cases continued to be diagnosed each year in the late 1990s.

"This remains the single biggest risk group for HIV, and with other sexually transmitted infections like gonorrhoea increasing in this group, there is an urgent need to reinvigorate safer sex campaigns targeted at gay and bisexual men. At the same time, in 1999 and 2000 there were for the first time more new diagnoses amongst heterosexuals than amongst gay and bisexual men."

Dr. Hughes said this was partly good news, as it reflects people who were infected many years ago coming forward for testing and treatment.

"However, the majority of cases of HIV in heterosexuals are acquired abroad in areas of high HIV prevalence such as sub-Saharan Africa. These infections tend disproportionately to affect minority ethnic groups.

"Once again, this shows how important it is to ensure access to sexual health services for all those groups who are particularly vulnerable to infection," she said.