Sex, sun, sea, and STIs: sexually transmitted infections acquired on holiday

doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7459.214

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ education articles:

From

Limit by

The BMJ iPad app brings you the best of print and online, including live links to the latest news, blogs, video, and podcasts. Get the BMJ iPad app.
You can use bmj.com to help you with your continuing medical education. Find out about CME/CPD credits for BMJ articles
Keep up to date with cardiology: Access the latest cardiovascular medicine resources from across BMJ Group.
Countdown to London 2012: BMJ Group's Olympics portal highlights latest Olympics and sports medicine-themed research, comment and learning

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

K E Rogstad (Karen.Rogstad@sth.nhs.uk), consultant1

¹ Department of Genitourinary Medicine, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield S10 2JF

Introduction

“The Dane in Spain was mainly on the Dane.”1 These words were spoken by the late Dr Robbie Morton, drawing on three decades' experience in venereology, about the sexual behaviour of holidaymakers and their risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs) while abroad. Despite Morton's years of clinical expertise his opinion would not survive the rigours of evidence based guidelines and at best would be graded as level 4, if at all. So is his assumption that sexual encounters while on holiday tend to be between people of the same nationality correct? What are the implications of international mixing on the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections? How should we manage people at risk before and after their holiday?

Methods

I searched Medline in November 2003, using the key words “sexually transmitted infection”, “abroad”, “tourist”, “holiday”. I reviewed websites of the Health Protection Agency, the World Health Organization, the Department of Health, the Foreign Office, and the Association of British Travel Agents as these could be expected to provide information on travel abroad. Clinical information is from Sexually Transmitted Diseases.2

Sexual behaviour abroad and acquisition of STIs

More than 30 million UK residents travel abroad each year.3 Sexual activity is known to vary by season; increased sexual intercourse and unsafe sex occur around the Christmas period and the summer vacation.4 Holidays are increasingly being taken abroad and in far flung locations, and the number of UK residents travelling abroad has increased by 27% since 1997.5 Holidays provide an opportunity for increased sexual mixing whether taken at home or abroad (fig 1, fig 2). Few recent data exist on sexual behaviour while on holiday abroad, and even fewer for people holidaying in the United Kingdom. Studies in the early 1990s showed notable risk behaviour in international travellers who attended for a “tropical check.” …