Yzabelle Bostyn
SEXUALLY transmitted diseases are spreading fastest in the Balearic Islands and Catalunya, according to experts.
Gonorrhea is the main culprit on the islands, described as Spain’s ‘main sex tourism destination and one of the largest in Europe’.
That’s according to Valeria Esteban, coordinator of Nueva Vida en las Islas (New Life on the Islands), which offers treatment for people with STDs on the archipelago.
Tomeu Moya, a researcher specialising in STDs, agrees: “There are more and more rumors of the Balearics being a sex tourism capital. Some go to ‘professionals’ and others meet up and have chem sex parties.”
He warned that diseases like gonorrhea are ‘ticking time bombs’ because people often do not present symptoms and continue with sex tourism.
Moya warned these diseases are often transmitted at chem sex parties ‘particularly popular with the gay community.’
“80% of gonorrhea cases are between homosexual men of an average age of 34 you go without condoms,” he said.
Chem sex involves taking drugs to make the experience more intense or prolonged and is often associated with the LGBTQIA community.
An 2017 EU study revealed that 14% of queer men had used drugs to improve their sexual experience in the last year, while 7.6% had done so in the last month.
According to the Ministry of Health: “It’s more frequent in big cities like Barcelona and Madrid, where there are big gay communities, as well as smaller tourist destinations like Torremolinos, Maspalomas, Sitges, Ibiza and Valencia.”
