NURSES in the region are to be allowed to prescribe drugs in a bid to stem a sex disease epidemic.

Concerns are growing at the spread of sexually transmitted diseases in the North-East through unprotected sex.

There is a particular worry about chlamydia, which can cause infertility in women.

Until now, only doctors at hospital clinics and GPs could prescribe the antibiotics needed to combat the disease.

This meant frustrating delays for patients diagnosed with chlamydia at their family planning clinic.

Now, nurses in County Durham are to be trained so they will be able to give prescription drugs to patients.

It is unclear to what extent nurses in other parts of the region are already issuing drugs at family planning clinics.

Durham and Chester-le-Street Primary Care Trust (PCT), along with Derwentside PCT, is due to train nurses in their new duties this autumn.

A similar approach is being tried in South Durham.

Maureen Sullivan, assistant head of nursing (children and family) for Durham and Chester-le-Street PCT, said: "At the moment, we can only give out contraceptives at family planning clinics and organise tests for chlamydia.

"If they need treatment, we have to send them off to their GP or the hospital genito-urinary medicine clinic."

She said that once the training was completed, patients could be treated as soon as they have been diagnosed.

She said: "It is our commitment to try to improve sexual health in the area. It is awful having to send people away."

The extended prescribing scheme will follow strict guidelines laid down by sexual health experts.

Between 1995 and 2000, cases of chlamydia in the UK rose from 30,877 to 64,000.

The number of cases doubled on Teesside during the 1990s and trebled in County Durham from 1995 to 2001.