The Evening Press reported a joint venture between various organisations to reduce the levels of teenage pregnancy (November 27).

Do your readers know that on a related subject, the House Of Commons Select Committee On Health published a report on the rocketing incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and called on the Government to act to reduce the spiralling rates?

The committee reported that one in ten young sexually active people are now infected with chlamydia, a major cause of infertility in women.

Syphilis rates have leapt by 500 per cent in the last six years, while gonorrhoea infections have doubled.

HIV is up by 26 per cent and 6,500 people were told they had the disease last year. Experimental clinics to test for STIs were to be run in two York secondary schools. This experiment is a joint venture between York Hospitals NHS Trust and the schools to reduce the record infection levels.

While this may appear to be laudable, in effect it means testing will be carried out on children as young as 11. The morning after pill and sexual health advice are already available to our children from this age.

The £150,000 grant for this work from the Department Of Health would be better spent by teaching the benefits of abstinence.

This has worked really well in the United States where, after adopting abstinence teaching and often backed by Government funding, teenage pregnancy figures have dropped 20 per cent.

Karen A Bruin,

Middlecroft Drive,

Strensall, York.

Updated: 10:59 Wednesday, December 03, 2003