British backpackers ’spreading sexually transmitted diseases across Australia’
A survey of 1,008 backpackers at hostels in Sydney and the Queensland city Cairns found that British backpackers often had triple the number of sexual partners they would have normally at home, even if they were not single on arrival.More than 45 per cent half of arrivals from Britain reported inconsistent condom use and 24 per cent had unprotected sex with multiple partners.
“Over a third (39.7 per cent) had multiple partners in Australia, increasing to 45.7 per cent in those arriving single,” the study’s British and Australian authors said in the October edition of Sexually Transmitted Infections, an international monthly journal on sexual health.
The survey also found that 60 per cent of men and 44 per cent of women used illicit drugs while on holiday in Australia. Authors of the reports said that high alcohol consumption, illicit drug use and unsafe sex combined to put backpackers at high risk of contracting a sexually transmitted infection and other health problems.
