Attendances at one a sexually transmitted disease clinic in the Southern Health Board area have increased five-fold in 10 years, according to a board report.
The increase from 909 attendances in 1990 to 5,068 at the Cork STD clinic in the South Infirmary/Victoria Hospital last year was alarming, said health board member Mr Simon Coveney TD. (FG) and member of the health board said.
The 1,230 new patients had been seen last year compared with to just 347 new patients seen in 1990.
Of these new patients, seen last year some 15 per cent were older teenagers, the board SHB said yesterday. The diseases included syphillis, gonorrhoea, and genital herpes simplex.
Mr Coveney said the strategies on prevention had failed, Mr Coveney said, and "young people in their teens are now more at risk than ever".
Ms Norah Geary, a midwife, suggested at the meeting that teenagers from the age of 14 should be issued with get free condoms. The reason the condoms had to be distributed free was that teenagers could not be relied on to buy their own protection, she said. They would rather spend the money on drink or ecstasy tablets and recreation.
The report at the board's August meeting also noted that the HIV was increasing, on the increase as it was in other health board regions. Last year an special ante-natal HIV screening service began in maternity hospitals in Cork and Tralee because of the increasing numbers of pregnant women who were turning up with the HIV virus in Cork and Kerry.
Transmission from mother to infant could be prevented through treatment of the mother.
Board member Ms Kathleen Lynch said the board was losing the battle against sexually transmitted disease.
"People are having sex younger. They are having babies younger," she said, adding that in some cases they were passing their diseases on to their babies.
"A horrendous, calamitous outlook" lay in store for the next generation and first-year and second-year secondary students had to be educated and properly informed, she Ms Lynch said.
A report from board general manager Mr Tony McNamara General Manager, outlined. The Southern Health said the Southern Health Board was the first to appoint a sexual health promotion officer and it was now appointing the first hospital-based, asylum-seeker nurse co-ordinator.
The board also had plans to increase expand the service by increasing the numbers of medical personnel attending clinics.
Almost 800,000 in additional funding had been approved for the development of the STD/HIV/AIDS service since 1999.