Casual sex rose to 38 per cent last year, which when coupled with poor condom use exposes the dire situation of the nation’s sexual health, according to the Genito-urinary Clinic’s annual report.

“In many cases it was impossible to trace the other person to get them checked for STIs since the sex was totally anonymous where no names were exchanged or perhaps remembered,” the report says.

Giving a snapshot of the sexual behaviour of its 3,035 clients in 2013 – the youngest patient was 13, the oldest 78 – the report blames isolated or ineffective sexual health promotion for the persistent high rates of casual unprotected sex.

Whatever is being done by way of sexual education is simply not having any measurable effect

“Whatever is being done by way of sexual education, be it at a school level or general health campaigns, is simply not having any measurable effect,” clinic consultant Philip Carabot told The Sunday Times of Malta.

“The good intentions and efforts of all concerned are not in any doubt. What are in doubt are the actual tools these professionals are using and/or being allowed to use.”

Dr Carabot warns that anything short of a “major soul-searching exercise” will be a disservice to Malta’s future generations. The report comes one month after the release of the island’s first national survey, which confirmed what the GU clinic reports have been highlighting for the past 14 years.

The majority of patients who visited the clinic (83 per cent) were self-referred and Dr Carabot expressed his disappointment at doctors’ low referral rate (17 per cent).

“It’s a pity the clinic is not being utilised as well as it ought to be,” he said.

Unfortunately, doctors were only referring patients, especially women complaining of vaginal discharge, when the treatment of multiple antibiotics prescribed over a prolonged period of time, failed.

A letter the Public Health Department sent to doctors urging them to stop using the antibiotic ciprofloxacin, which had little, if any, therapeutic benefit in treating STIs seems to have been ignored because the practice continues.

Another worrying situation raised in the report is the considerable misinformation some teachers were giving to students on the side effects of the Pill – the most widespread being that it causes infertility.

“This misinformation could be due to a misunderstanding, but we’re not talking about one-off cases. This is one factor that warrants a review of what exactly is being taught in schools,” Dr Carabot said.

Just 26 per cent of female patients used contraception, mostly the Pill, which was contributing to the high rate of teenage pregnancies.

The report also urges authorities to review its policy on the HPV vaccine given to girls to protect them against the virus that causes warts in the genital area, possibly leading to cervical cancer.

The recommendation is that Malta offers the vaccine that targets four HPV types not just two. When Australia introduced this vaccine it practically eradicated anogenital warts.

Although treating genital warts was expensive in the long-term, using the proper vaccines would be more cost-effective.

Dr Carabot ends his report by calling for the clinic, located at Mater Dei Hospital, to be expanded as it had now reached saturation point.

This was impossible to achieve with just one consultant and seeing that Dr Carabot was looking to retire there was a “pressing need” to train suitable candidates.

“If these are not found soon there will be the temptation to take short-cuts and possibly recruit unsuitable candidates for the sake of expediency.”

The findings

• The unemployed make up 38 per cent of the patients who visited the GU clinic last year. They’re followed by semi-skilled, skilled and professional.

• The largest cohort – 67 per cent – was aged 20 to 35.

• The majority of the 3,035 patients (over 60 per cent) were males, with just 19 per cent of the total being non-Maltese.

• Fourteen per cent of patients admitted to having had other recent sexual contacts, apart from their regular partner.

• Seventy per cent admit to never using a condom.

• Popularity of anal sex seems to wax and wane over the years – 15 per cent of patients admitting to this.

• The STIs gonorrhoea, syphilis and HIV were at an all-time high last year with 61, 41 and 13 cases registered respectively.

Times Talk will be discussing the issue of sex education on Tuesday at 6.55pm on TVM.