Sex diseases remain high in South Tyneside

THE SHIELDS Gazette
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The council’s People Select Committee is to consider improvements made in the field over recent years – and areas which need to be improved further.
One area of major success is a massive reduction in teenage pregnancies.

Latest available figures also reveal a near 60 per cent fall in girls under the age of 18 getting pregnant since 1998.

In 2013, 76 teenage girls in the borough conceived, according to data from the Office of National Statistics. That works out as 28.3 per 1,000 of the borough’s population.

Meanwhile, members will be informed that in relation to sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia remains the most common – as it is in other parts of the North East.

Also highlighted are the number of “hard to reach” groups that are failing to access the borough’s sexual health services, including gay men, black and ethnic minority groups and young people.

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust provides contraception services and sexual health screening and testing.

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