The target of the safe sex campaigns were always young people, because it was assumed that young people are more prone to risk taking and unsafe sex. Yesterday health officials started a safe sex campaign targeted at the middle-aged men, in the wake of the sharp rise in sexually transmitted infections in the over-45s.

According to the figures compiled from 19 sexual health clinics, by the Health Protection Agency, the number of such cases has been doubled from 1996 and 2003. Dr Babtunde Olowokure, from the HPA's regional surveillance unit in Birmingham, said, "Sexual health strategies have rightly focused on the under-25s but our results indicate that sexual risk-taking behavior is not confined to young persons but is also an increasing trend in the over-45s.  Older people are increasingly likely to be single or undergoing relationship changes and are less likely to consistently use condoms, perhaps because the risk of pregnancy no longer exists.Increased international travel, internet dating, new drugs to counter erectile dysfunction and overlapping sexual networks may also be factors."  

Researchers examined records at clinics in the West Midlands and identified 4,445 cases among people aged 45 and over, most of them straight men and women. Cases of chlamydia, herpes, warts, gonorrhoea and syphilis all rose sharply, with overall infection rates per 100,000 of population rising from 16.7 to 36.3.

The most common infection - 45% of all cases - was genital warts, with herpes next at 19%. Among men, those aged 55 and older were most likely to have an infection, while rates among women were highest in the 45 to 54 age group, according to the study, which appears in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

In 1996, the over-45s accounted for only 3.9% of all visits to sexual health clinics, but by 2003 this had risen to 4.5%.

The men in their forties don’t pay much attention to the kind of sex they are having. They think such things as sexually transmitted diseases are for the young people. According to the survey old men and women are frequently taking risk. They don’t hesitate from unsafe sex. Health data also says that usually health of this age group is largely ignored. The increasing urbanization and feeling of alienation is forcing people in 40-50s to enter in unstable relationship.