Instituto Bernabeu in Informativos Telecinco: our experts talk about STDs

The Informativos Telecinco team has turned to our experts to talk about Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and their increase among young people. María Martínez, medical coordinator at Instituto Bernabeu Elche, and biologist Eva García, from Instituto Bernabeu Biotech, took part in a report on the announcement by the Ministry of Health to study the free condoms promotion for young people between 14 and 22 years of age with fewer resources in order to curb the transmission of these diseases.

According to the data, gonorrhea and syphilis have been increasing in incidence for more than 20 years, with a 25-fold and 10-fold increase respectively, while chlamydia has shot up by 245% since 2016.

“Young people have lost their fear and they don’t remember that STDs are still present in our lives,” explained Dr Martinez, who added that “HIV is no longer as prevalent as it once was, but there are still other diseases we must prevent”. For her part, Eva García explained that “at Instituto Bernabeu we find that 30% of the tests we carry out in young patients have a positive result for different STDs,” which is why “it is very important to raise awareness among the young population and they should take this type of test, as they are often asymptomatic, which promotes their spread”.

These infections affect both men and women, and although many STDs do not show any symptoms, they can cause serious long-term problems if they are not treated. In some cases, they can have very negative effects on important aspects of health such as fertility and pregnancy.