Negligence towards safe sex by Icelanders and the visits by many foreigners have led to the country having the highest rate of syphilis and chlamydia in Europe, its top medic said, urging drastic measures to curb the crisis.

Iceland's chief epidemiologist Thorolfur Gudnason suggested that condoms should be distributed in Icelandic schools.

There are a lot of people against this idea, many parents. But we need to have a thorough discussion about this and to do everything we can to stop the spread of these diseases, which can get very serious.

“Men and women aren’t careful about sex…. they aren’t’ using condoms,” Gudnason, told state TV.

“That's actually the only explanation” for the drastic rise in sexually transmitted diseases in the tiny island nation of 360,000 people, he said.

Iceland currently has the highest syphilis rate on the continent per capita at 15.4 cases per 100,000 individuals, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Also on rt.com ‘A growing threat’: CDC sounds alarm over sexual infections in US

"Syphilis mainly occurs in men, homosexual men” like in most other countries, Gudnason pointed out, adding that “the increase primarily been explained by the movement of people to Iceland, the foreigners.”

“The frequency of chlamydia is high as well, probably the highest in Europe,” the epidemiologist regretted. The disease mainly affected younger people aged between 18 and 25 years, he added.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!