Last month, the government announced an extension of the national HPV vaccination campaign to include men who have sex with men who are aged less than forty. This was welcomed, as this group, particularly men who exclusively have sex with men, are excluded from the direct effects of the vaccination of women. Vaccination is offered […]
Latest articles
Organisation Focus: National Ugly Mugs Scheme
Some readers may already be familiar with the National Ugly Mugs Scheme, an initiative which started life in Australia in 1986, developed by a collective of sex workers to circulated descriptions of people that they had encountered, or situations that they had been in, which had been dangerous. Sex workers have an increased risk of […]
Interview With MSP Jean Urquhart
Readers, in particular those in Scotland, may have read about the recent opening of a consultation to decriminalise sex work in Scotland. This Bill, Prostitution Law Reform (Scotland) Bill, is the first stage of an attempt to pass this legislation through the Scottish Parliament. Currently, in Scotland, the issue of sex working is covered by […]
Web-App Review: Petals
Ground breaking-anonymity features, and well-presented information, but needs to follow through. Petals is an online web application, developed by Coventry University, which aims to provide information and assistance to those who wish to know more about, or who are at risk of, FGM. Using the site is fairly straightforward. Accessed through the Petals homepage, it […]
Peer Reviewers Wanted
The Journal is seeking new peer reviewers. This would involve occasional work reviewing submitted papers for acceptance and advising on any final fine-tuning which needs to take place. This is done online, and reviewers can claim CPD using this work. If you would like further information, please contact info.jfprhc@bmj.com. […]
Data Use In Sexual Health
Last week, a London HIV clinic hit the headlines: in emailing service users en-masse with a newsletter, the service inadvertently emailed all clients, with names and email addresses visible to all recipients. Like the majority of information security breaches, this was not the result of a clever hack. Many media outlets have reported this breach as […]
Review of Glow: A Reproductive Health App
Glow is a reproductive health app for Android and iOS, developed and released this year. It forms part of a triad of apps including Glow Nurture, which allows logging of pregnancy data, and Ruby (currently only available for iOS) which logs and advises on contraceptive use. The purpose of Glow is to centralise fertility awareness […]
New Society for Abortion Care Providers
The British Society of Abortion Care Providers (BSACP) has been formed to promote best practice, education, training and research in abortion care. The BSACP is open to those involved in the provision of abortion care including doctors, nurses, midwives, counsellors, clinical support workers and managers. The BSACP will serve its members by providing a forum […]
Hues and Cries: Colour Changing Condoms and Chlamydia Vaccines
Journal readers may be interested in the paper by Stary et al in last month’s edition of Science magazine, which reports on early trials of a mucosal, killed vaccine against Chlamydia. Chlamydia remains one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in the UK, and creates a significant disease burden with the associated risk of […]
Good Vibes: The FPA’s Novel Funding Strategy
The UK Sexual Health charity The Family Planning Association (FPA) is eighty-five years old this year, but its decision to broaden its funding opportunities by opening up an online shop specialising in sex toys proves that age is no barrier to experimentation. Set up in 1930, the FPA originally provided clinical services to the people […]