BoP girls report high rates of chlamydia

A high school nurse says the stigma around STI testing is decreasing among students. File photo / NZ Herald

Bay of Plenty girls aged 15 to 19 are suffering from some of the highest rates of chlamydia in the country but local high school nurses say the problem is still confined to a small number of students.

Last year there were close to 1000 cases of chlamydia reported in Bay of Plenty girls aged between 15 and 19.

With 991 cases, the region was the third highest in the country, followed by Hawke's Bay with 795 cases.

The Bay of Plenty followed Waikato where there were 1332 cases and the Auckland region where there were 3132.

The number of infections was up on the 814 cases in the region in 2004.

A total of 86 children in the Bay of Plenty, aged between 1 and 14 contracted chlamydia in 2009, compared with just nine in 2004.

The region had 81 cases of gonorrhea among 15 to 19-year-old girls five years ago, while last year that number had dropped to 35.

In 2004 there was nine cases of gonorrhoea recorded among children aged between 1 and 14 in the Bay of Plenty.

While no cases were reported among this age group in the Bay last year, Tauranga police say a man has been charged in relation to a 3-year-old girl found to have gonorrhoea in 2010.

A principal from one Tauranga high school said staff were facing issues relating to teenagers having sex.

"There's a naivety out there. It's a reality we're dealing more and more with these things every day," he said.

A nurse at one of the region's largest high schools said the increase in cases of STIs among teenagers could be partly attributed to more accurate methods of testing.

The nurse, who did not wish to be named, said high school nurses tested students for STIs from the end of Year 10 when students were aged about 14 and preparing to enter the senior school.

She said Year 9 students rarely required or asked for STI tests at school.

Often students would approach the school nurse with another health complaint before plucking up the courage to ask for an STI test.

The nurse said the biggest change over the past four years had been a softening of the stigma attached to being tested for an STI.

This was helped by allowing students to complete an STI test themselves and return the sample for testing.

"It takes a lot of the stigma away if they can do the check themselves," she said.