New safe-sex campaign after rise in infections

A new public-information campaign to warn young people of the dangers of HIV, the first since the notorious "iceberg" television advertisements of 1986, will be launched next year, the Government announced yesterday.

The new advertisements – yet to be devised – will be a main part of the Government's long-awaited national strategy on sexual health. It comes as infection by HIV, which leads to Aids, and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), have reached record levels, as have the number of unwanted teenage pregnancies.

Doctors said yesterday that young people had forgotten the "safer sex" message of the 1980s. New infections of HIV last year reached a record 3,425, the highest since testing began. Big increases were also recorded in cases of syphilis, gonorrhoea and chlamydia.

Professor Michael Adler of University College Hospital, London, said: "We have to be honest and admit the rising trends of STIs and HIV, associated with the fact that the safer-sex messages of the 1980s are no longer being adhered to, mean we have a major public-health problem that we have to face up to."

The controversial "iceberg" campaign of 1986 aimed to shock and frighten young people into an awareness of HIV and Aids. Narrated by the actor John Hurt against a backdrop of icebergs, tombstones and an exploding mountain, the television advertisement ended with the words "Don't die of ignorance" and the image of a tombstone with "Aids" chiselled on to it.

The campaign followed years of delay and indecision by the Government over how to publicise the dangers of Aids. Ministers demurred over the term "anal sex" and Margaret Thatcher initially wanted advertisements pasted on lavatory walls rather than put in newspapers.

The Department of Health has yet to decide how to present the new campaign which, as well as HIV, will cover other STIs, unwanted pregnancies and sexual health generally.

Dr Sheila Adam, the deputy chief medical officer, said: "We cannot yet say how we will get the message across. There is no evidence to suggest scare tactics work." She said young people, the target of the campaign, would be consulted.

New figures suggest that a record 30,000 people in Britain are living with HIV, of whom 10,000 are unaware they have the virus. Half of the people who will die of an Aids-related illness this year will die within 12 weeks of being diagnosed.

Cases of gonorrhoea last year were at a 10-year high of almost 14,000 cases, a 27 per cent increase between 1999 and 2000. Syphilis cases also rose substantially in 1999-2000, with more than double the number among gay men. Chlamydia, which can leave young women infertile, increased in women by 17 per cent last year.

The £47.5m, 10-year sexual health strategy will set targets and improve services, care and treatment of patients, the Department of Health said. Women at family-planning clinics or having cervical smears will be offered screening for chlamydia from next year, there will be more routine testing for HIV, and patients will be offered vaccination for hepatitis B.

The National Aids Trust said it was disappointed with the strategy. "For such an important issue this is far too limited in its scope, and fails to look at the broader social impact of HIV such as on employment, education in schools, and housing," a statement said.