Sex warning for backpacker Brits in Australia

Many young Brits in Australia aren't having safe sex says a survey

Thousands of British backpackers are leaving Australia with more than a suntan, a didgeridoo and cork hat.

A new study of budget travellers has blamed a culture of sleeping around, drinking and low condom use for a spike in sexually transmitted infections.

Australian doctors now want to target British holidaymakers with safe sex advice before they leave the UK.

"The majority are wearing condoms occasionally, but hardly anyone is using them all the time," said Professor Basil Donovan, one of the authors of the study.

"We need to get a bit more realistic about how we get the message across."

Multiple partners

700,000 British tourists make the trip to Australia every year, many are young budget travellers staying for at least a couple of months on a working holiday visa.

Researchers quizzed 5,700 backpackers who visited a sexual health clinic in Sydney over an eight year period and compared their answers with patients born in Australia. The results were recently published in the Journal of Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Young Brits were much more likely to drink heavily, have multiple sexual partners and test positive for chlamydia than Australians.

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"You have to make the most of it," said Cameron, 21, from Portsmouth. "It does get pretty wild. I can't tell you in too much detail but the stories you hear don't even come close.

"I guess it depends how sensible you want to be. It's not hard to put a condom on at the end of the day."

About half the men and a third of the girls who travelled to Sydney and attended the clinic said they had had sex with at least two different people in the previous three months.

Only one in five backpackers said they always used a condom

Twenty-seven per cent of female backpackers and 17% of men said they had drunk at a 'hazardous' level, (set in Australia at around nine pints of beer a week for women and 18 pints for men).

Just one in five backpackers said they always used a condom when they had sex, way below the levels you would expect to see from similar studies in the UK.

Both male and female backpackers were more likely to test positive for chlamydia, the most common form of sexually transmitted infection. The disease can lead to infertility in women if left untreated.

'No big brother'

Courtney, 19, from Preston, told Newsbeat: "You meet a lot of people and end up drinking every night. They don't really care - it's just sex. It is easy to forget about home so you can do things you wouldn't normally do."

Doctors are now calling for authorities in Britain and Australia to work together on a safe sex campaign targeting young backpackers.

"All young people think they are bullet proof," said Professor Donovan. "Their behaviour here might not be the same as when they lived with their parents in Manchester.

"There is no big brother around to keep an eye on them, so little sister can really do what she likes. We need to address that and get the health promotion message out around hostels."