STDs on the increase in Halton (From Warrington Guardian)

STDs on the increase in Halton

HALTON is caught up in an explosion of sexually transmitted diseases.

The most recent figures show local gonorrhoea rates have gone up by six or seven times and chlamydia rates have tripled.

Halton's director of public health, Dr Daniel Seddon, said: "There's undoubtedly a national, regional and local increase which is quite dramatic."

Even syphilis is on the increase.

"There's an epidemic of syphilis based in Manchester and we get a little bit of the spin off from that," said Dr Seddon.

"What we have recognised in the NHS over the past couple of years is that STDs are a big problem and the rate of increase is a problem."

A bid has been made for funds to expand and refurbish treatment centres at Warrington and Halton Hospitals.

"The current Genito-Urinary Medicine facilities at Warrington and Halton Hospitals are just not big enough," said Helen Crombie of North Cheshire Hospital's Trust, who run Warrington and Halton Hospitals.

The facilities were found wanting by the health watchdog CHI two years ago and hospitals boss Ian Dalton has urged the hospital's executive board to 'grasp the nettle' and get on with the £250,000 redevelopment.

Many sexually transmitted infections are easily treated - if they are diagnosed soon enough.

Syphilis can have serious effects on the brain and nervous system while gonorrhoea could cause inflammation of the prostrate gland or blindness in unborn babies.

And chlamydia, one of the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infections and one which often has no symptoms at all, can cause ectopic pregnancies.