In the past six years, sexually transmitted infections have risen by up to 870 per cent. But how does one talk to young people about sex?

The Observer, November 2003

Earlier this month, a selection of the world's most famous pop stars gathered in Edinburgh for the MTV Europe Music Awards, the usual three-hour love-in with Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, the White Stripes and the Darkness. The show finished at 11pm, and then there were the parties to attend, and by the time many of the artists and their entourages and their fans made it back to the city's packed hotels the dawn was breaking over the castle and a few staff from MTV had added an unusual feature to their hotel room door handles. A new, dangling cardboard sign carried a picture of a condom and the phrase Weapon of Mass Protection. Goodness knows what the music people made of it at that time of the morning. If they were like almost everyone else, they would have turned the sign over, to the message that read Do Not Disturb, and fallen into sleep, or perhaps into the arms of another.

The sign was part of a wider campaign called Staying Alive and was primarily a message about HIV, new cases of which are being recorded in the UK at a disturbing rate. But it was also intended as a warning about other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), diseases which we often regard as belonging to another age and which are increasing at a rate almost beyond comprehension. The 6,000 young people at the MTV show and the hundreds of thousands who watched the live broadcast and the repeat on Channel 4 would probably all be at least vaguely aware of Aids, but few would know much about syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia, non-specific urethritis or herpes, unless, of course, they knew about them from personal experience. It is likely that several people in the audience had one or more of these infections, many without knowing it, and would pass them on as they would a newly burned CD. Unlike HIV, the traditional STIs are not often life-threatening, although untreated complications can be destructive. And unlike HIV, they did not have pop stars queuing up to talk about their dangers, or to take part in benefit concerts to raise money for patient services. As in the Dark Ages, contracting an STI is not something one talks about readily, or without some embarrassment, even to one's GP. Which is still a major part of the problem and a significant reason why we now have a greater prevalence than at any time since the Second World War.

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