Official figures revealed that medical centers in Britain diagnosed more than 5,000 boys and girls under the age of consent with sexually transmitted diseases last year, among whom were children as young as 11 years old.
The newspaper “Daily Mail” said that the figures obtained from the Department of Public Health in England under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that 5386 people under the age of consent underwent treatment throughout Britain for sexual diseases, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, herpes and other symptoms.
She added that the number of reported cases of children suffering from sexually transmitted diseases doubled in less than a decade after it recorded 2474 cases in 2003, while 90 children aged 13 years and under were diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases in 2012.
The newspaper pointed out that 44 of these children suffered from chlamydia, 32 children from genital warts, and an unknown number of gonorrhea and herpes.
Chlamydia is a type of bacteria that are parasites found inside cells. Chlamydia infection is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection in humans and is the leading cause of infection blindness worldwide.
There are three types of chlamydia, including Chlamydia trachomatis (infecting humans), Chlamydia porcine (infecting only pigs), and Chlamydia moridarium (infecting mice and hamsters).
She pointed out that the figures also revealed that in the past three years, 16,707 children under the age of 16 were diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases, at a rate of 15 children per day, while experts believe that many children who were treated for sexual diseases were victims of sexual abuse and were not sexually active.
The figures said that girls made up 87 percent of children diagnosed with sexually transmitted diseases in each of the past three years, and 5,354 girls under the age of 16 were treated for these diseases in 2011, and 5,967 girls in 2010.
She added that sexually transmitted diseases were more prevalent among older children, and last year reached 10,319 infections among children under the age of 16, and 17,810 infections among adolescents under the age of 17.
