Pre-service teacher training in sexuality education is an important component of effective teaching in schools and is an opportunity to build a sound foundation for knowledge and skills transfer in this crucial area for young people's health. This editorial discusses the limitations of current teacher training programs at tertiary institutions and argues the need for reviewing current policies and practices to better support teacher in providing effective education.

This article reviews the design, methods and findings of the Australian behavioural surveillance for HIV and Sexually Transmissible Infections (STI) from its inception in 1996 till the end of 2009. It highlights important lessons for HIV/STI behavioural surveillance among homosexual men. The review also discusses the policy implications of the national behavioural surveillance and its value in a better understanding of the HIV epidemic and HIV/STI prevention in Australia.

We explore the epidemiological impact of treatment as prevention for HIV among men who have sex with men in South Australia. Our model-based findings suggest that increases in treatment coverage could lead to moderately high reductions in the number of HIV infections over the next 5 years. Targeting men who are socially engaged with the gay community would result in the majority of potential reductions in incidence.

HIV-infected patients who have become triple class experienced (TCE) have received antiretroviral drugs from the three major drug classes, and are at risk of exhausting treatment options. We assess factors associated with becoming TCE, and survival following TCE. The number of patients who are TCE in Australia is projected to increase from 2800 in 2003 to 5000 in 2012.

Australia has experienced rising notifications of HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) despite widely available combination antiretroviral therapy (CART). Our analyses of trends over time and of average ages suggest growing numbers of MSM living with HIV infection and not taking CART could be the source of this increase.

This paper examined diagnoses of locally acquired and overseas acquired HIV infection among homosexual men in New Zealand 1996–2008, and identified three phases (low, resurgent, elevated). New HIV diagnoses disproportionately affected some groups of homosexual men in the different phases and over the whole period. Despite an increase in cases, the annual diagnosis rate per capita is low by international standards. A better understanding of epidemic drivers is required.

We conducted a retrospective longitudinal analysis of data from MSM who underwent HIV testing between April 2006 and June 2009 at three primary care clinics. Logistic regression was used to determine predictors of HIV positivity and seroconversion.

This study examined intended and actual uptake of catch-up HPV vaccination among young women in the UK. In multivariate analyses, the only significant correlate of both intended and actual uptake were social norms. The findings suggest that HPV vaccine uptake may be increased by interventions that use appropriate media to promote social norms more supportive of HPV vaccination.

This analysis examines characteristics associated with hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection among young adult men who have sex with men from five US cities during 1994–2000. Among white men, anti-HAV positivity was associated with having 20 or more lifetime male sex partners and ever having had unprotected anal sex. Factors associated with a history of HAV infection among men who have sex with men (MSM) in non-outbreak settings are likely similar to those among non-MSM.

Early diagnosis of HIV is an important prevention strategy that requires general practitioners (GPs) to recognise individuals at risk and perform appropriate screening. Sexual history taking is part of this process. This survey investigated the attitudes and practices of Victorian GPs regarding sexual history taking and screening for HIV in men who have sex with men (MSM). The findings reveal that GPs often fail to take a sexual history from MSM, and that this may be limiting opportunities for HIV testing.

The Sexual Health and Attitudes of Australian Prisoners is one of the few studies to examine attitudes to a range of sexual health issues such as abortion, sex before marriage, homosexuality, and prison sex. These attitudes were compared with those of a community sample, collected by the Australian Study of Health and Relationships. Overall, prisoners tend to have either similar or less accepting attitudes towards sexual issues than the community sample.

The present study examined how ethnicity, religion, HIV knowledge and attitudes, and other demographic factors are associated with engaging in unprotected vaginal intercourse in a diverse sample of unmarried young adults. Increasing age, being in a relationship for more than 6 months, greater HIV knowledge, stronger attitudes supporting the use of condoms, and religion (but not ethnicity) were associated with engaging in unprotected vaginal intercourse.

In this study a brief measure was developed to assess US college-aged men and women attitudes about condoms and condom use. Additionally, this study reports gender and sexual relationship status differences in US college-aged men and women’s condom attitudes. Findings indicate that the brief condom attitude scale appears to be a reliable measure for assessing US college-aged individual’s attitudes about condoms.

Aboriginal young people in Australia are known to be particularly vulnerable to sexually transmissible infections with surveillance data showing alarming rates of diagnosis. This study used a convenience sample of Aboriginal young people in New South Wales aged 16–30 years and showed that casual sex was common, however condoms with casual partners occurred at rates similar to those observed among other young Australians.

This study assessed the association between the experience of anal intercourse and sexual risk-taking in a national probability sample of 861 sexually experienced women and men aged 18–25 surveyed in 2010. Anal intercourse, reported by over one-third of participants, was significantly associated with sexual risk-taking, as well as with negative attitudes and beliefs about condom use. Sexual sensation-seeking mediated some of the relationships.

This study compared street male sex workers (MSW) in Brazil, that reported consistent or inconsistent condom use with clients, concerning sociodemographic data, personality, impulsiveness, alcohol and drug consumption, depression, and criminal involvement. MSW with inconsistent condom use showed greater involvement with criminality, higher reward dependence level and more frequent self-report of being HIV-positive. HIV risk cannot be attributed only to prostitution, but also to the psychological characteristics of each individual.

HIV-positive female sex workers (FSW) encounter double stigma. If the surveyed FSW were found to be HIV-positive, 11.7% of them would continue working as FSW, 24.6% would not care about transmitting HIV to others, 18.8% believed that they would eventually spread HIV to others and 9% would revenge by spreading HIV to others intentionally. In this study, factors associated with these perceptions were identified by fitting multivariate models.

Advertising sexual health screening services for rural Victorian young people in Australia was piloted and the effectiveness of advertising through different methods was evaluated compared to the cost incurred by each advertising method. Referrals from other health care services and health care web sites were methods that identified most effective and would be best to focus in advertising sexual health services for rural young people.

In 2009, New Zealand’s estimated chlamydia rate climbed to 803 per 100 000 population, nearly three times higher than reported by Australia. This study examines testing and hospital-discharge data for chlamydia-related complications over recent years. Chlamydia testing rates have trebled since 1998, as have reported infection rates, whereas overall hospital complication rates have not increased. However, a recent rise in pelvic inflammatory disease-related hospital admissions among women aged 15–24 is of concern.

Chlamydia trachomatis remains a highly prevalent disease suggesting that current control strategies are not sufficient. Asymptomatic men with chlamydial infections are under-identified and probably play an important role in sustaining the epidemic. Novel methods of actively screening asymptomatic men are needed to reduce the prevalence of chlamydia. This formative study explored the features of a sexually transmissible infection control program that would encourage annual testing among men.

There are many reports about different surgical procedures for creation of neovagina in patients with vaginal agenesis. Long-term outcome after rectosigmoid vaginoplasty in patients with Rokitansky syndrome and impact on sexual and psychosocial life confirmed that psychological and psychosocial recovery should definitely be considered to evaluate these patients and estimate their quality of life.

The main finding of this study is that after adjusting for years since onset of sexual intercourse (YSSI) instead of age, negative sexual outcomes among early sexual initiators were no longer significant. It concludes that YSSI is an important explanatory variable when studying adolescents’ sexuality and needs to be included in future research on adolescent sexual health.

Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) prevents vertical transmission of HIV but can infrequently be associated with adverse outcomes in pregnancy. This case reports a drug hypersensitivity reaction to HAART, followed by premature delivery of the infant. Hypersensitivity reactions to HAART should prompt urgent consideration of a change in therapy to avoid adverse pregnancy outcomes.

The rate of induced abortion (IA) was an incidental finding in a study that measured chlamydia incidence in young Australian women. We found a pregnancy rate of 7.2/100 person years (95% confidence interval (CI): 5.7–9.0)) (n = 76) and IA rate of 2.1/100 women years (95% CI: 1.4–3.2) (n = 22) and differences were found between States and Territories. These results will contribute to the limited data available about IA in Australia.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydia trachomatis in 413 symptomatic/asymptomatic people using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and culture methods. The registered prevalence with PCR was N. gonorrhoeae 2.66% and C. trachomatis 0.73%. One man showed co-infection. Culture method demonstrated lower sensitivity. This simultaneous study showed that more frequent is the gonococcal infection. Further investigations are needed.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of genital mycoplasmas in 348 symptomatic/asymptomatic women by polymeras chain reaction (PCR). The registered prevalence was: Ureaplasma urealyticum 14.66%; Mycoplasma hominis 3.16%; Mycoplasma genitalium 0.29%. Co-infection was established in 11 swabs. This is the first study in Bulgaria for the detection of mycoplasmas by PCR. Our results demonstrate similar or lower values in comparison with other researchers and further investigations are needed.