Report: Number of British STD cases spiked in 2009

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) in Great Britain has reported that in 2009, nearly 500,000 new sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were diagnosed in the UK. Last year's diagnoses represented an increase of 12,000 from two years before, according to The Times of India.

Last year, the spread of chlamydia had increased by 7 percent while gonorrhea cases had grown by 6 percent and genital herpes by 5 percent.

Among female patients, women aged 15 to 24 years made up two-thirds of the population who had tested positive for an STD. This age group was also higher compared to their male counterparts, who made up about half of the people who had new cases of STDs.

The HPA also found that the largest male population to contract these viruses and diseases in the UK were men who have sex with men (MSM), the news source reports.

Gwenda Hughes, head of the sexual health section of the HPA, stated that these findings show that "young adults are more likely to have unsafe sex and they lack the skills and confidence to negotiate safe sex."

For the last decade, chlamydia has been the most commonly diagnosed STD in the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. In fact, in 2007, approximately 122,000 new cases of the disease were diagnosed among the country's residents.