Sexual health cuts ‘short sighted’ as syphilis infections reach 68-year high

 Spending on sexual health has plummeted while infections are soaring, a think tank has warned.

The King’s Fund said spending on public health had fallen by more than £80million in one year, with sexual health services among those seeing the sharpest cuts.

Public health experts said it was “reckless” to attempt to make such savings, which were likely to fuel a higher bill for treatment of sexually transmitted infections.

Researchers found planned spending on sexual health services had fallen by £64million, or 10 per cent, in the last four years, and it was set to continue to fall by £30million, or five per cent, this year.

David Buck, senior fellow in public health and inequalities at the King’s Fund, said: “Reducing spending on public health is short-sighted at the best of times. But at a time when the rate of syphilis is at its highest level for 70 years, to cut spending on sexual health services is the falsest of false economies and is storing up problems for the future.”

The latest figures from Public Health England show 5,920 syphilis diagnoses in 2016 – the highest level since 1949 and nearly double the 3,001 cases in 2012.