Sexual health: government “should set clear targets” to tackle rising number of STIs in England

The UK government must implement a new national strategy for tackling sexually transmitted infections (STIs) with clear targets for reducing rates, experts have urged.

In a report published on 5 February,1 the Terrence Higgins Trust and the British Association for Sexual Health & HIV said that “brutal” funding cuts and inaction by the government had led to cases of many STIs soaring in the past decade, during which time rates of gonorrhoea rose by 249% and rates of syphilis rose by 165%, reaching their highest level since the second world war.

In …