Blackpool is 'STI capital' of Lancashire

The resort ranks just behind Manchester for the highest diagnostic rates of chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, genital warts, and genital herpes per 100,000 people in the North West, according to Public Health England’s most recent data from 2020.

Chlamydia was the most common STI found in Blackpool, at a rate of 326 per 100,000 people. This was followed by gonorrhea at 106 per 100,000.

Genital herpes was found at a rate of 73.7 per 100,000 people, genital warts at 48.4, and syphilis at 23.8.

A Blackpool Council spokesman said: “Blackpool has historically tested significantly more people for STIs than is the national average, though the testing rate did fall in 2020 due to the pandemic, but only to levels seen nationally. As more people are tested, more people are found who can then be treated. Our positivity rate is similar to the national average.

“Often people may not recognise they have an STI since the infections are often symptomless. This means that more people can easily contract an STI or pass it on without knowing.”

There were 317,901 new STI diagnoses in Britain during the year 2020. The highest risk areas nationally were all found in London, with Lambeth, Southwark, Hammersmith and Fulham, Tower Hamlets and Wandsworth making up the top five.

The places with the lowest diagnostic rates were Craven and Ryedale in Yorkshire, the Vale of White Horse in Oxfordshire, Copeland in western Cumbria, and East Lindsay in Lincolnshire.

Blackpool has historically had a high rate of STIs, with 1,107 cases per 100,000 people being recorded in 2019 – well above the North West's average of 739 per 100,000.

Using the 2020 diagnostic rates, men’s health pharmacy From Mars gave the resort an ‘STI score’ of 8.43 out of 10, with 10 registering the highest risk of contracting an STI.

Blackpool Council said: “Prevention is central to achieving good sexual health and entails changes that reduce the risk of poor sexual health outcomes and activities that encourage healthy behaviours. Education, condom use, diagnosis and treatment are key interventions for their prevention and control.

“Those at risk of STIs can access testing through Sexual Health Services, with online testing also available.”