"Sex, sun, sea, and STIs: sexually transmitted infections acquired on holiday"

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"Sex, sun, sea, and STIs: sexually transmitted infections acquired on holiday"

"The Dane in Spain was mainly on the Dane." These words were spoken by the late Dr Robbie Morton, drawing on three decades’ experience in venereology, about the sexual behaviour of holidaymakers and their risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections (STIs) while abroad. Despite Morton’s years of clinical expertise his opinion would not survive the rigours of evidence based guidelines and at best would be graded as level 4, if at all. So is his assumption that sexual encounters while on holiday tend to be between people of the same nationality correct? What are the implications of international mixing on the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections? How should we manage people at risk before and after their holiday?

BMJ 2004;329:214–7 (British Medical Journal)