Safe sex campaign targets 'reckless' youth

Friday night, a club in central London. The dance floor is packed, the beats are bumping. "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes," R'n'B singer Nelly demands. Sparsely dressed bodies are sweating and close to boiling point.

People are getting carried away. Many are hoping they'll end up in bed together. There will be little thought of condoms – until the morning after.

And for some, the consequences will last for the rest of their lives. This week the FPA (formerly Family Planning Association) launches a campaign with a simple message: "Should have used a condom". The FPA is determined to reach nearly one million young people with their "Sexual Health Week" campaign.

Two video clips will be shown in 254 clubs and bars in England, Wales and Scotland, bringing the message to young people just as they are perhaps sizing up their latest potential partner. The organisation has produced cards bearing pictures of either a female or a male body, prompting people to press their lips to it – revealing a nasty surprise: "Congratulations, you may have got a sexual infection!" Leaflets have been sent out to various organisations.

Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) are on the increase in the UK, especially among those in their teens and early twenties. Dr Imtyaz Ahmed-Jushuf, clinical director for sexual health at Nottingham City Hospital and honorary secretary of the Association for Genito Urinary Medicine told The Independent on Sunday that STI diagnoses in people under 20 have increased by 33 per cent since 1995, and that the numbers are spiralling.

Yet these statistics may not reveal the whole truth as infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea sometimes do not show symptoms, and remain undiscovered. And if they don't get treated, they can have a serious impact.

Dr Nicola Smith, consultant at West London Centre for Sexual Health in Charing Cross Hospital, said that the human papilloma (wart) virus can cause cancer of the cervix, which is increasing in young women.

CDR Weekly, the online journal of the Public Health Laboratory Service, reveals that chlamydia infections have increased by 105 per cent in females and 98 per cent in males since 1995. In 2000, almost 1 per cent of the 16- to 19-year-old girls in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had been diagnosed with the disease in a genito-urinary medicine clinic.

The number of people infected with syphilis has more than doubled in men between 1998 and 2000, and risen in women by 53 per cent, as an article in the British Medical Journal states.

On a sunny Thursday afternoon the West London Centre for Sexual Health has only just opened its doors, yet the waiting room is already packed. Young peoplehide behind newspapers and magazines, waiting to see a doctor who can treat them.

"STI is not about how nice a person is," says Ceri Evans, senior health adviser at the centre. People generally still think that only a certain sort of person catches diseases. But, as Evans reveals, they see all different kinds of people in their waiting room, "from cleaners to high court judges".

In response to the needs of their young patients, the centre has recently opened a young persons' clinic, where under-20s don't need an appointment. "Young people are often particularly worried about being here. They fear an adult might recognise them or if they have to wait too long and are not home in time, they might face questions from their parents," Dr Smith said. "Everybody's concerns are treated confidentially."

Part of the problem lies with attitudes and a lack of education. Over 50 per cent of the young readers of Cosmogirl! magazine say they have not learned about STIs in school, according to a survey carried out by the magazine. As editor Celia Duncan says, the teenagers know about condoms and contraception, but "they are reckless when it comes to sex". However, it turned out only 21 per cent of those questioned were sexually active. Out of this group over half had had sex with more than one partner.

Elliott Browne, 20, says the problem about sex education at school is that "we are a sexually repressed culture and don't like talking about sex. You need to tackle the subject from a young age to instill in people's minds that sex is a normal thing. The more you make it taboo, the more the young kids begin to experiment." Elliott admits to having had sex without a condom "about a dozen times", because he knew all his 22 sexual partners and prefers to just "go with the flow". "It makes me wonder whether a girl has anything if she insists on using a condom," he explains.

Wednesday night. The Strawberry Moon bar is still empty, but 27-year-old accountant Simone Marshall and her friends are on their marks to start a good night out.

Simone recalls that at university she had a couple of one-night stands without using a condom. "I was out clubbing and I had had quite a bit to drink," she explains. Afterwards she was worried, but more about being pregnant than STIs.

She and her boyfriend did not get tested before they had sex without a condom, but as they had by then been together six months, Simone trusted him. "I didn't ask him about his sexual history, but he takes care of himself well."