In addition to my role as clinical and CPD editor at Chemist+Druggist, I also commission educational features for the pharmacy counter staff magazine OTC’s Counterpart Plus series.

Up to now I have usually commissioned other people to write these features, but when family problems made it difficult for one of our regular writers to turn in their copy on time, I stepped in at the last moment and wrote this piece on sexual health.

With the housing shortage, the credit crunch, and the state of the environment, you’d think today’s youngsters didn’t need anything else to worry about. But there is at least one other big issue they need to take very seriously indeed: sexually transmitted infections. We’re living in a new and very different world. A generation ago, no-one had heard of herpes or HIV, and chlamydia was still little known - but in young people today some of these infections are reaching frightening proportions, and bringing disease, infertility and, frequently, broken relationships and families. These are issues for older people too, but the spread of these diseases is far worse in the young. Click here to read on…

Could you use copy like this for your publication or website? If so, contact me by email at gmatkin@gmail.com.