A person is holding a condom. Illustration photo by Pexels
Young people are having sex earlier in life, having more unprotected sex and thus transmitting more sexually transmitted infections (STIs), according to an expert.
At a dermatology conference on Friday, Pham Thi Minh Phuong, head of the diagnostic department of the National Dermatology and Venereology Hospital, said the hospital treated between 4,000 and 5,000 cases of STIs every year. Among them, 30% are aged 15 to 24, she added.
The number of men presenting to hospital for an STI diagnosis is twice as high as the number of women. The occupations with the highest number of people seeking an STI diagnosis are workers and those in the service sector, 4.2% of STI patients are students aged 12 to 18 and 22.6% are older students from 18 to 22 years old.
“Nowadays, people who come to the hospital for an STI diagnosis are of all ages, and there are also more of them. The reason is that younger people tend to have sex earlier and have unprotected sex. [sex] more often,” Phuong said, adding that most patients come with symptoms such as fluid discharge and blisters. The most common illnesses are syphilis, herpes and gonorrhea.
A study on the health of students in Vietnam, conducted by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization and published last year, found that the rate of people having their first sexual intercourse before the age of 14 years doubled, from 1.45% in 2013 to 3.51% in 2019.
“Contracting STIs as young people can make this group feel vulnerable, and if the information is disclosed, it can lead to discrimination and seriously affect patients’ mental health,” Phuong said.
