Complacency over safe sex is being blamed for a dramatic rise in cases of sexually transmitted diseases.
According to government figures diagnoses have hit a 10 year high with rates of chlamydia and gonorrhoea in particular rising dramatically since 1995.
The number of people visiting Genitourinary medicine clinics (GUM clinics) in the UK has doubled in ten years.
Experts warn complacency about safe sex messages had led to the soaring infection rates, particularly among young women and gay men.
| Sexually transmitted diseases |
| Genital chlamydia - 32,371 cases in 1995, 56,855 in 1999 Gonorrhoea - 10,598 cases in 1995, 16,470 in 1999 Syphilis - 141 cases in 1995, 217 in 1999 Genital warts - 60,334 cases in 1995, 72,233 in 1999 |
There has been a call for doctors to try and persuade teenagers to abstain from sex altogether.
The statistics from the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) show that since 1995 diagnoses of genital chlamydia have risen 77%, gonorrhoea by 57%, syphilis by 56% and genital warts by 22%.
Dr Kevin Fenton, of the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, said: "A worrying trend is emerging from these figures.
"The main groups of concern are young women, who experience the highest rates of infection with gonorrhoea and chlamydia, and gay and bisexual men, in whom syphilis infections doubled between 1998 and 1999."
