Britain says sexual health will be a key priority

The British government named sexual health as a key priority for the NHS on Thursday, as new figures showed another rise in HIV infections.

Public Health Minister Caroline Flint said the government was determined to tackle the problem of rising sexually transmitted infections in Britain.

"That is why we have committed over 300 million pounds to modernize sexual health services as well as making sexual health one of the seven key national priorities for the NHS next year," she said in a statement.

The government had ordered a review of the NHS's key priorities, reducing them from the current 10 to seven, prompting fears among doctors that sexual health might fall off the priority list.

"The UK is facing a crisis in sexual health," British Medical Association Chairman James Johnson said in a letter to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt last month.

"Meeting current waiting time targets is currently impossible. Although the target time is 48 hours, the reality is fewer than 50 percent of patients benefit from these time scales," he wrote.

"Those who fear they might be infected are unlikely to refrain from sexual activity while they wait for a clinic."

The Health Protection Agency said on Thursday the number of people in Britain being diagnosed with HIV continued to increase last year, taking the total living with the condition close to 60,000.

The agency forecast that over 7,750 new diagnoses of HIV infection would be recorded for 2005, when all data was complete, a rise of 6.5 percent over the previous year.

It said the rise was mainly due to a continuing increase of cases among homosexual men, which the agency forecast would jump to around 2,450 compared to 2,185 in 2004.

Other sexually transmitted diseases have also been rising in Britain, with cases of chlamydia, which can cause infertility in women, tripling over 10 years.