Judith Collins
National Party Health Spokeswoman
30 January 2005

Call for safe-sex campaign aimed at syphilis

National's Health spokeswoman, Judith Collins, says there must be an urgent re-evaluation of the safe-sex promotion campaign if infectious syphilis is to be halted before it becomes an epidemic.

She is commenting on a report that the incidence of syphilis has quadrupled in the past three years.

"It looks like the Government's safe-sex promotion campaign is falling on deaf ears, particularly where older age groups are concerned, and this is a worry.

"The increase in syphilis, it seems, is due to so-called 'safe-sex fatigue', with more unsafe sex going on.

"This is a real worry because there are serious health effects later on from having syphilis which goes undiagnosed for several years. The results are really serious.

"The Government must have a serious look at its safe-sex campaign, in particular the Hubba Hubba campaign, which is aimed primarily at teenagers, because the increase in syphilis is in the older age groups," Ms Collins says.

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