Health of the nation: way forward in sexual health

Sexual health is a wide concept encompassing education, health promotion and disease prevention, diagnosis and management of sexually transmitted diseases, screening and counselling for HIV antibodies, management of HIV infected patients, family planning, termination of pregnancy, psychosexual counselling, prevention of cervical and lower genital tract cancers, and sexual abuse. Implementation of The Health of the Nation (1992) will include assessing the current situation, views, alliances and interventions, need for research and development and within alliances setting challenging but achievable targets. The Health of the Nation includes a target for gonorrhoea which is a surrogate for partner change, sexually transmitted diseases in general and HIV infection, and a target for conceptions among those under 16 years of age. These targets need to be adjusted locally and may be staged. All interventions to achieve these targets must be available. Implementation of The Health of the Nation to achieve the main objectives which are to reduce the incidence of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and provision of effective family planning services will be challenging but sexual health gain will be well worthwhile.