The University College of London put together a study in which they created a reconstruction of the HIV epidemic in gay or bisexual men in the UK, which enabled them to look at the relationship between testing rates in HIV, the sexual behaviour of HIV transmission and cases, and antiretroviral treatment. Professor Andrew Phillips of UCL found that this model helped to identify trends in past and present cases which could determine how to reduce the number of people contracting HIV in the future. What the HPA found is that condoms are one of the leading ways to reduce the number of diseases, offering the most effective form of contraception in helping to protect against sexually transmitted diseases in new or casual partners.
In November 2011, the HPA noted that the number of people with HIV in the UK had reached a record 96,000 – this doesn’t include the number of people currently infected yet not diagnosed with the disease. Regular check-ups are important in order to reduce the risk of any sexually transmitted diseases, so if you’re sexually active and sleeping with a new partner, you should get yourself checked at a local sexual health clinic. It’s also vital that you use protection when having sex – new research has found that the number of STIs could be 400 percent worse if people ceased to use condoms, highlighting the importance of them during sexual activity.