As many as one in four young people in some Northland communities have been diagnosed with the sexual disease chlamydia.
Northland medical officer of health Dr Jonathan Jarman said the high rates were revealed by a laboratory surveillance programme launched last November.
He would not name the communities, saying it
was an issue that affected the whole region.
However, statistics show that Kawakawa, with 2213 cases per 100,000 people, had the region's highest chlamydia rate, followed by Kaeo with 2070 and Kaikohe with 1491.
Eighteen cases are diagnosed in Northland each week and 820 new cases were recorded last year.
Eighty-three per cent of sufferers were aged between 15 and 30.
Seven babies had caught the disease from their mothers and 17 children under the age of 15 had caught it as a sexually transmitted infection.
The overall Northland figure of 584 cases per 100,000 people was three times higher than rates reported in Australia, but lower than the 613 cases per 100,000 people reported in Auckland.
Rates of the disease in Northland were similar to those reported in Auckland and the Waikato, where other surveillance programmes had been established.
"I'm not sure that Northland is any worse than any other area although certainly there are some areas that have very high rates and the reasons for this are not clear," said Dr Jarman.
"The figures show that there are a high number of sexually active young people who are not using condoms and not practising safe sex."
Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in New Zealand and is largely without symptoms. Without treatment, men risk infertility and infection of the testicles. Women risk infertility, ectopic pregnancy and long-term pelvic pain.
- NZPA
