The decline of condom use is “worrying,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge mentioned, noting the rise threat of illness and unintended being pregnant.
Most up-to-date knowledge means that charges of STIs are surging in Europe. In 2022, gonorrhoea circumstances rose by 48 % in contrast with the earlier 12 months, syphilis circumstances by 34 %, and chlamydia circumstances by 16 %. Left untreated, chlamydia and gonorrhoea can result in infertility whereas syphilis could cause neurological and cardiovascular points.
Thurday’s findings underscore the necessity for “supportive prevention and intervention methods that focus on younger folks’s sexual well being,” Kluge mentioned.
The variety of sexually lively youngsters remained comparatively secure since 2014, the report discovered, with one in 5 boys and one in seven women reporting having had intercourse.
Contraceptive tablet use additionally remained comparatively secure between 2014 and 2022, with 26 % of youngsters reporting they or their accomplice used the tablet at their final sexual activity. And about 30 % of youngsters reporting utilizing neither a condom nor a contraceptive tablet on the final intercourse, an analogous price to 2018.