Study: 1 in Every 5 In U.K. Won’t Tell Partner They Have An STD

A new study by the medical site Zava contains some alarming findings for anyone in the United Kingdom who would prefer not to contract a sexually transmitted disease. According to the study’s findings, not only are STD diagnoses on the rise, but about 20 percent of all British citizens—one of every five—would not tell their sexual partners if they knew they were carrying sexually transmitted disease. The survey found that the U.K., with a population of about 66 million, had more than 1,200 new STD diagnoses every day. According to calculations by the site Bustle, that means more than 250 cases of STD infection would go undiagnosed on a daily basis in the U.K. Of the 1,262 average daily STD diagnoses, nearly half, 623, are for the bacterial infection chlamydia, while another 179 Brits are diagnosed with genital warts, which are caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV. Breaking the study’s results down by U.K. city, the results show that residents of Brighton and Hove, a seaside town on England’s south coast, are the most sexually honest in the U.K., with a full 91 percent of Brightonians saying that they would, indeed, inform their most recent sexual partner of an STD diagnosis. On the other hand, Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a more dangerous place to have sex, with 16 percent in that city saying that were not sure they would inform a partner that they carry an STD. British government stats also contain bad news about sexual infections in the U.K., showing a five percent jump in STD diagnoses from 2017 to 2018—but fewer young people went to the doctor to get checked for STDs. In fact, 60 percent of the British respondents to the survey said that they would be “embarrassed” to see a medical professional for a sexually transmitted disease—and 38 percent of women admitted that they had never been tested for STDs even once. With the general reluctance among the British to confront their own sexually transmitted diseases, it perhaps should be no surprise that 2018 saw a jump of more than 56,000 in gonorrhea diagnoses. On the other hand, the stats showed a 54 percent increase in online orders for home chlamydia tests, so perhaps all hope is not lost. Photo By ClaudiaM1FLERéunion / Wikimedia Commons