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Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Young People

Volume 492: debated on Friday 15 May 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children under 16 years old were diagnosed with (a) gonorrhoea, (b) chlamydia, (c) syphilis, (d) herpes and (e) genital warts in each of the last five years. (272349)

Number of selected sexually transmitted infections (STI) diagnosed in genito-urinary medicine (GUM) clinics and in the National Chlamydia Screening programme (NCSP) in England, in those under the age of 16 for 2003 to 2008 are given in the following table.

STI

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

GUM clinics (under 16 years)

Chlamydia

1,372

1,367

1,315

1,307

1,530

n/a

Gonorrhoea

322

261

230

199

224

n/a

Syphilis

3

3

17

8

6

n/a

Genital herpes

151

142

140

143

215

n/a

Genital warts

574

584

515

617

762

n/a

NCSP (15 years only)

Chlamydia

152

283

467

628

1,176

2,020

Notes:

1. Data for 2003 consist of information reported for the period 1 April 2003 to 31 December 2003.

2. Notes on GUM data:

(a) The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are for diagnoses made in GUM clinics only. Diagnoses made in other clinical settings, such as general practice, are not recorded in the KC60 dataset.

(b) The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are the number of diagnoses made, not the number of patients diagnosed.

(c) The information provided has been adjusted for missing clinic data.

(d) Data are unavailable for 2008.

3. Notes on NCSP data:

(a) The NCSP has been phased in since 1 April 2003 with all 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) reporting data to the programme since March 2008. Therefore note that numbers of diagnoses have risen substantially as an increasing proportion of the target population have been tested.

(b) NSCP data are presented by PCT of residence and exclude those resident outside of England.

(c) The data from the NCSP Core Dataset are for positive chlamydia screens conducted within the NCSP outside of GUM clinics only and include positive screens made by the Boots pathfinder project.

(d) The data available from the NCSP are the number of diagnoses made and not the number of patients diagnosed.

(e) Data include chlamydia diagnoses for males, females, and those with unknown/ unspecified sex.

(f) Data presented are based on tests with confirmed positive diagnoses only.

Source:

Health Protection Agency, KC60 returns. NCSP.