Infections Linked to a Lack of Sex Education in Russia

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Apr 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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A lack of sex education is the main reason the rate of sexually transmitted infections in Russia is about 100 times higher than in Western Europe, according to a new Swedish-Russian study.

Russia has 136 cases of syphilis per 100,000 people, compared to just 1.5 cases per 100,000 in Western Europe, and the highest rates of STIs are in Siberia and the Far East, the study said.

"In periods of economic turbulence, the number of people with STIs always increases," said Marius Domeika, professor at Sweden's Uppsala University, which assisted in the research.

"This has been well demonstrated by the dramatic rise in syphilis infections [in Eastern Europe] after the fall of the Berlin Wall," he told a conference, where the study was presented last week.

A recent survey conducted by St. Petersburg youth center Yuventa indicated that 61 percent of local teenagers have little or no sex education, Yuventa director Pavel Krotin told the conference. This is nearly the same as in 1998, when the figure was 68.5 percent, he said.

The government and education officials have balked at offering sex education in schools, and a controversial pilot program to introduce courses in the 1990s died after coming under fierce criticism from parents, politicians and the Russian Orthodox Church.

The STI study was carried out as part of a project to set up youth centers like Yuventa to provide free sex education and counseling. The project was organized by the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control and supported, among others, by the St. Petersburg and Leningrad region health committees and the World Health Organization.

"Knowledge means power, power over your own life. Young persons have the right to knowledge and high-quality education, counseling and treatment," said Barbro Gustafsson, of Stockholm's South Hospital.

More than 300 Russian specialists have been trained in the six years since the project was launched in the Leningrad region and entered St. Petersburg three years later. The city now has seven youth centers, financed mainly by district administrations.

St. Petersburg coordinator Natalya Vorobyova said the fight against STIs is showing some progress. From 1998 to 2003, the rate of primary syphilis among 15- to 19-year-olds has dropped by five times and gonorrhea by 2.5 times, while cases of chlamydia fell by 20 percent and trichomoniasis by almost 50 percent.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/04/28/012.html