A PLAN to improve sexual and reproductive health in the West has revealed Melton’s sexually active teenagers are the most likely to use a condom, out of the area’s seven municipalities.
Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Georgie Crozier, launched the Western Region Sexual and Reproductive Health (WRSRH) Partnership’s four-year plan in West Footscray last week.
Women’s Health West leads the WRSRH and their new plan is focused on key population groups, such as teenagers and people with a disability, who can experience poor health to create equity in health outcomes.
The plan shows 73.3 per cent of sexually active teenagers in Melton reported using a condom when practising safer sex.
Maribyrnong’s sexually active teenagers recorded the second-highest condom-usage rate in the West at 61.7 per cent, followed by Moonee Valley on 47.6 per cent and Brimbank on 45.8 per cent.
More than 41 per cent of Wyndham’s sexually active teens reported using condoms and Hobsons Bay youths reported 38.5 per cent.
The condom usage average for teenagers Victoria-wide is 58 per cent.
Women’s Health West CEO, Dr Robyn Gregory, said the West lagged behind the rest of the state in other sexual and reproductive health indicators.
She said notifications of chlamydia in the region have increased by 21 per cent in the past three years and cervical screening rates “are significantly lower than the state average”.
During 2011, there were more than 3100 sexually transmitted diseases reported in the West including more than 500 cases of chlamydia in Brimbank and Wyndham each.
Out of more than 850 syphilis cases in the state, the West accounted for more than a quarter.
