Alarm Over Plan to Screen Scots Pupils for Sex Disease

By Graham Grant

CHILDREN under the age of consent are being tested for a sexually- transmitted disease as part of a trial screening programme at Scotland’s schools.

Pupils as young as 15 are taking part in a scheme aimed at identifying and treating teenagers who have chlamydia, an infection which can lead to infertility.

The results yesterday sparked fears of a growing epidemic of sexually-transmitted diseases in schools as doctors revealed that up to 12 per cent of children tested positive for the illness.

Details of the screening scheme, trialled in Dumfries and Galloway secondary schools, emerged as it was praised in a Scottish Executive report on sexual health – making it more likely to be rolled out across the rest of the country.

But the report also showed a Pounds 15million ‘strategy’ devised by the former Labour-led Executive – and still backed by its SNP successor – had failed in many important areas.

Despite measures aimed at cutting unwanted pregnancies among teenagers, 2006 saw 3,446 abortions carried out on women under the age of 20.

This was a 4 per cent rise on the previous year – and the highest figure since terminations were legalised 40 years ago.

Abortions among under-16s reached 362 in 2006, up from 341 the year before and 309 in 2004.

The increases came despite measures such as training High Street pharmacists to hand out the morning-after pill to under-16s without their parents’ consent.

Labour lost power last May but SNP Public Health Minister Shona Robison continues to support the reforms introduced by the previous Executive.

Yesterday’s official report praised the ‘real sense of momentum behind the strategy’, which includes the screening scheme.

It revealed that chlamydia tests are being carried out on pupils ranging from S4 – mainly 15-year-olds – to S6.

Dr Maggie Gurney, lead clinician in sexual health for NHS Dumfries and Galloway, said: ‘We have found different rates of chlamydia infection, ranging from nil to 12 per cent.

‘Pupils can opt out if they want and there is no pressure for them 8,832 cases of chlamydia were recorded in Scotland in 2006 to take part. But what we are finding is that most of them are happy to be tested as part of the wider Sexual Health And Relationships Education (Share) programme.’ Pupils who test positive for the disease are informed by mobile phone within a week. The report said chlamydia was the most common sexually-transmitted infection in Scotland, with 8,832 cases north of the Border in 2006 – almost five times the figure of 1,770 in 1996.

Elizabeth Smith, schools spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said: ‘I am very alarmed that we have got to the stage where chlamydia testing is now required in schools. We have to review what we are doing in schools as there is a major debate to be had about the kind of sex education the system should be providing.’ Yesterday’s report also revealed that pharmacists in Ayrshire and Arran are being trained in ‘child protection issues’ to allow them to give the morning-after pill to girls as young as 14.

It said local NHS bosses decided to lower the age limit for the service from 16 ‘in light of high teenage pregnancy rates in 13 to 15-year-olds’.

There were 4,943 consultations in 2006-07 in chemists’ shops in the area, with the morning-after pill given out in 98 per cent of cases.

The report announced Pounds 630,000 in additional funding for sex education over this year and next. There has also been an increase in the number of teachers, school nurses and youth workers undergoing training in how to provide sex education using the Share programme.

Under the scheme, pupils as young as 14 were taught how to use condoms and told where to get advice on safe sex – but it has already been branded a failure by researchers.

Meanwhile, the research also highlights the growing pressures on the NHS caused by Eastern European migrants who need treatment for sexual infections.

A Polish-speaking ‘clinical support worker’ has been hired by NHS Lothian’s family planning service in Edinburgh to help Polish women with sexual problems.

The expert group behind the report said yesterday: ‘Two years is much too short a time to judge the effectiveness of the strategy. Significant change is a long-term process and we are at the very early stages.’ g.grant@dailymail.co.uk Comment – Page 14

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