Critically analyse the current health promotion activities associated Essay

Critically analyse the current health promotion activities associated with this sexual health - Essay Example For sexual health to be attained and maintained, the sexual rights of all persons must be respected, protected and fulfilled† (Technical Consultation on Sexual Health in January 2002). Reproductive and sexual health and well-being are vital if people are to have a safe, responsible, and satisfying sexual lives. Good sexual health is important to both individuals and society. It is, therefore, important to have the right support and services to promote good sexual health. Sexual health requires a positive approach to human sexuality and understanding of the intricate factors that shape human sexual behaviour (Fogel 1990). These factors affect whether the expression of sexuality leads to sexual health and well-being or to sexual behaviours that put people at risk or make them vulnerable to sexual and reproductive ill-health. Health programme managers, policy-makers and care providers, need to understand and promote the potentially positive role sexuality can play in people’s lives and to build health services that can promote sexually healthy societies. The level of concern related to sexual health among health care professionals, the Government and the public is presently high. This has been as a result of growing rates of infection, the arrival of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s, confirmation of heightened risk taking and often inadequate control of infections. Common conditions now include Chlamydia, non-specific urethritis and wart virus infections, but almost all sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are becoming more common (Stokes 1997). The frequency of visits to branches of genitourinary medicine (GUM) in England has doubled over the last decade and now stands at over a million a year, see figure 1 below. Diagnoses of genital Chlamydia also virtually doubled up during the 1990s, with a major marked increase in men and women aged less than 20. Current surveys of women