Hope they get on top of this before it goes the way of AIDS.

I doubt very much that it will lead to a new puritan age - people enjoy sex and sexual freedom too much. I understood from my days as an infection control Nurse and from my reading that new antimicrobials are not necessarily the way forward in fighting disease but rather the aim in the future will be to genetically modify the bacteria/fungus/virus/protozoa so that it cant reproduce/survive. The worrying group as I understand it in STDs is older people who on separating from long term partners sew a few wild oats they hadn't sewn before without protection.

I don't think it will lead to a new Puritan age either as no society has ever managed that, not even the most controlled. They just went outside the group and brought STDs back to their so-called loved and pure ones. I think if it does become widespread it will lead to people being more careful. I remember a midwife telling me many years ago that the reason all pregnant women are offered blood tests is to see if they have an STD either through their own activity, or in those days, more likely their other half's.

It's true there have been some nasty outbreaks of STDs generally in the over-50's because of laxness using condoms, but a report in the Independent says most of these current cases are in the under-25's. I'm 53 and recall getting my "Tombstone" (AIDS - don't die of ignorance) leaflet in January 1987 along with my "Congratulations on the birth of dc1" cards, but that younger generation haven't been subject to the same kind of full-on campaign as my lot were. Maybe that's where we need to concentrate?