VNExpress – Young people are having sex earlier in life, as well as having more unprotected sex, and thus communicating more sexually transmitted infections (STI), according to an expert.
At a conference on dermatology Friday, Pham Thi Minh Phuong, head of the diagnosis department at the National Hospital of Dermatology and Venereology, said the hospital treats 4,000-5,000 STI cases every year. Among them, 30% are aged 15-24, she added.
The number of males coming to the hospital for STI diagnosis is twice more than the female number. Occupations with the highest number of people seeking STI diagnosis are workers and those in the service sector, 4.2% of STI patients are students aged 12-18, and 22.6% are students aged 18-22.
“People coming to the hospital for STI diagnosis these days are of all ages, and there are more of them as well. The reason is because young people tend to have sex earlier and are having unprotected [sex] more often,” Phuong said, adding that most patients visit with symptoms like fluid discharge and blisters. The most common diseases are syphilis, herpes and gonorrhea.
Research on student health in Vietnam, conducted by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization and released last year, revealed that the rate of people having their first sexual intercourse before age 14 has 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 gets out, it may cause discrimination and severely affect patients’ mental health,” Phuong said.