Health Update: Time to talk

AMERICAN researchers have identified the 'yak factor' - talking to your sexual partner - as crucial in protecting against diseases such as herpes and HIV infection. People who discussed their previous partners, Aids, condom use and other intimate matters, were three times less likely to have had a sexually transmitted disease, according to a survey of 550 teenagers in Minneapolis and St Paul. Dr Michael Resnick, who led the study for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the University of Minnesota, said: 'Talking implies that 'you look before you leap'.'