In their annual review published yesterday, ACET (AIDS Care Education and Training) refers to the House of Commons Health Committee Report which highlights evidence of a growing crisis in the nation’s sexual health.ACET executive director Rosemary Ruddy said that people working in sexual health promotion and services in Jersey saw the same scenario being replicated in the Island with the prospect of astronomic treatment costs in the future if action was not taken immediately.Mrs Ruddy said that there was a failure in the Island to collect the base-line evidence needed to accurately assess the current situation and provide an appropriate response.National data has shown that the dramatic increase in incidence of acute sexually transmitted diseases has arisen from far-reaching changes in sexual behaviour over the last ten years.Those changes have shown men and women reporting higher numbers of partners, earlier ages for first sexual intercourse and an increase in unsafe sex.’There is absolutely no reason to believe that people’s attitudes and behaviour in Jersey are any different from those in the UK,’ Mrs Ruddy said.Consultant microbiologist Dr Ivan Muscat said the number of acute sexually transmitted diseases reported in the Island appeared to have doubled in the past two years, showing an increase in unsafe sexual practices.
