Dicing with danger for a one-night stand

EVERY weekend in large North-East towns young men and women are going out with intention of getting drunk and having sex.

According to sexual health worker Sandy Relph it is now "the norm" for large numbers of young people to have unprotected sex with virtual strangers week-in, week-out. It doesn't matter if a bedroom is not available, a parked car, an alleyway or even up against a wall will do just as well.

"When I ask people what they know about the man or woman they had sex with, you are lucky if many of them can remember their name," says Sandy, who manages the sexual health clinic at Middlesbrough General Hospital.

It is this kind of behaviour which has seen the numbers attending sexual health clinics double in the last decade. More than one million people are now seeking help and advice after developing something they hadn't bargained for.

Since January 1 the clinic attached to ward 48 at Middlesbrough General has seen 140 new female patients and more than 200 new male patients.

Figures for 2001 show there were 63 male cases and 26 female cases of gonorrhoea, about twice the number the clinic would have expected a few years ago.

Apart from the problems experienced by young revellers, the clinic also has to cope with prostitutes who are infected because customers refuse to use condoms, and sex tourists who have picked up sexually transmitted diseases in places like Thailand.

"They get off the plane at Teesside Airport and then come knocking on our door," says Sandy, who also tours schools in the Middlesbrough area, trying to get across the message to 14 and 15-year-olds that sex is a serious business and has consequences.

"Most of the people who go to Thailand are single males and I can tell you they don't go there to smell the flowers," says Sandy, who reckons she has "seen it all".

If the television programmes aimed at young people are anything to go by it is not surprising that people are at it like rabbits, according to Dr Abayomi Opaneye, consultant in genito-urinary medicine at MGH. "More people are taking risks, they have the idea that it can't happen to them," says Dr Opaneye, who is organising the international conference on sexual health which is taking place in Middlesbrough tomorrow.

"I occasionally watch the TV that young people watch and I see actors wearing skimpy clothes and hear a lot of sexual innuendo," he says.

But the consultant complains that he never hears any talk about condoms or taking precautions against unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted infection.

"By all means, let's have fun, we all like fun, but you have to remember that every action has consequences and those consequences are not portrayed."

Young men and women who frequently change partners are also portrayed, but again, there is no mention of elementary sexual health precautions. "This is the 21st century, we have got to get rid of that old-fashioned British reserve, we need to get boys and girls talking to each other," says Dr Opaneye.

"The main trend we are picking up is an increase in risky sexual activities, more people having more partners and not using condoms. We don't know why this is happening. Maybe people think we can treat everything these days, well, it's not true, there is no magic pill," he adds.

To try to understand how young people think, Dr Opaneye has invited around 20 sixth formers from local colleges to attend Saturday's conference at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

"We hope to learn from these 17 and 18-year-olds. We want to know what we are doing wrong, why our message is not getting through," the consultant adds.

This is the fourth conference Dr Opaneye has organised on Teesside and the calibre of speakers is growing in stature. This year's event is chaired by Professor Brian Gazzard, a London-based specialist who is one of the world's leading experts on HIV and Aids.

"It's good to get experts from outside Middlesbrough. Last year the main speaker was from Africa, this year we have a world-renowned expert on HIV," says Dr Opaneye.

Some of the subjects being tackled at tomorrow's event are the menopause, child abuse, and prostitution, a subject which looms large in a town which is regularly described as the vice capital of the North-East.

Dr Opaneye is proud of the fact that he helped set up one of the UK's first drop-in clinics specifically for street girls, in a bid to reduce infection and promote condom use. Five years on, that Middlesbrough clinic is still running but the consultant would like to see a European-style red light zone where the prostitutes would not be harassed by the police.

Dr Opaneye accepts that nobody wants to see prostitutes working on their street but believes that a zone of tolerance - which has been talked about on Teesside in the past - would make it easier to reduce the risk of infection and to provide more support for the women when their clients make unreasonable requests.

"We want to help these women so that if a client wants sex without a condom they will be able to negotiate with them and refuse them if necessary," says Dr Opaneye. "We are hoping we will be able to do more for these women in future."

Apart from the risk of infection, the street girls also face threats and violence from their customers. "About three prostitutes have died in Middlesbrough in the last few years. It is a very dangerous game," says Dr Opaneye.

Only a few weeks ago bodybuilder Dean Cartwright, 33, from Billingham, was jailed for life at Teesside Crown Court after he admitted raping a street girl in October. The court heard that the ex-paratrooper had targeted vice girls in a ten-year reign of terror, in one case raping two prostitutes in the space of two hours.

Apart from reducing the spread of infection among street girls, Dr Opaneye wants to stop disease spreading in the community in general. There are 70 known HIV positive cases in Middlesbrough alone.

"The punters have a high chance of becoming infected if they have unprotected sex," he says. "They are playing Russian roulette with their health and there is no need."