| New figures revealed a 10.7% rise to 454 in diagnoses among men during 2008, while the 554 cases among women represented a 9% rise on the previous year.
Tayside now has proportionately more people presenting at clinics with chlamydia than any other Scottish health board area.
NHS Tayside said the figures reflected increased testing for the infection, the most common sexual disease.
The figures also showed that recorded cases of all acute sexually transmitted infections in Tayside clinics rose by 6.7% last year.
A total of 1968 people were diagnosed with infections including syphilis, gonorrhoea and HIV during 2008, up from 1844 the previous year.
A NHS Tayside spokeswoman said, “It is disappointing that the number of STIs has increased.
“Tackling STIs remains very much a priority for us and in Tayside we have a comprehensive range of education, screening and testing services, as well as outreach clinics in communities.
“We also actively encourage people who think they may have been exposed to an STI, even if they do not have any symptoms, to come along to one of our clinics.
“By doing that and identifying new episodes of infection we can treat the individual and ensure they cannot go on to unintentionally infect others.
“NHS Tayside is working towards improving sexual wellbeing with successful awareness campaigns and better access to services, such as increased chlamydia testing.
“Information is also provided to all age groups on our website www.sexualhealthtayside.org”
Nationally, there was only a slight increase in acute STIs diagnosed in clinics in Scotland, — from 22,906 to 23,171.
In 2008, as in previous years, more new acute STIs were in men, with the number of diagnoses of syphilis, gonorrhoea, genital warts, NSGI (non-specific genital infection), non-chlamydial, HIV and other STIs being higher in men than women.
The number of diagnoses of chlamydia, genital herpes and trichomoniasis was greater in women.
Almost a quarter of all acute STI diagnoses are in those aged under 20. |
