The State Government is trying to cover up the alarmingly high number of sexually transmitted infections in children, including babies, by trying secretly to do away with the notification system for venereal diseases, the Opposition claims.

Liberal MP Graham Jacobs said he believed the Government made the changes because it had been embarrassed repeatedly when figures showing the rate of STIs among children were released publicly.

Dr Jacobs said by repealing the regulations for reporting STIs, the Government had effectively made notification of cases of STIs in children optional.

Figures tabled in Parliament earlier this year show that between 2001 and 2005 there were 708 notifications of sexually transmitted diseases for children aged 14 years and under; 16 were in children three years and under. A further 55 were in children aged between four and 12.

Dr Jacobs said the Government had pushed through regulations, published in the Government Gazette earlier this month, which meant disease notifications would no longer be on the prescribed forms used by doctors but would now be in “a form and manner approved by the Executive Director” of Health.

He said the changes meant there would no longer be notification forms, passed on to the Health Department and often forwarded to the DCD and police in suspected cases of child abuse, but the Government had not announced an alternative system for notification of STIs. This meant potentially no figures would now be kept.

Mr McGinty later said that the recent Health Amendment Act 2006 had significantly strengthened the notification process by requiring diagnosing practitioners to provide more comprehensive information. “This means that there is more complete and accurate data of the true incidence of disease in WA,” he said.

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