A Christmas and New Year campaign has been launched urging people to look after their sexual health during the holidays.

Drinking over the party season can lead to more young people having unplanned or unsafe sex.

Health promotion workers in Brighton and Hove are giving out advice and information and promoting services on offer to help partygoers stay safe.

Key to the campaign is a new multimedia CD-Rom aimed at improving knowledge among 13 to 19-year-olds.

It focuses on sexual health and teenage pregnancy issues and increasing awareness of services provided in Brighton and Hove.

Young people across the city have been involved in its production.

Around 4,000 copies will be distributed to schools, colleges, youth clubs and youth organisations free.

The £5,000 cost has been met through local NHS and teenage pregnancy strategy funding.

The CD-Rom, So What Is Sexual Health, includes a 3D map of Brighton with service details, a problem page and an A-Z of safer sex.

The NHS and Brighton and Hove City Council staff will work together to promote sexual health services by giving out the CD-Rom in goody bags over the Christmas break, including at club events for young people.

It will also be sent to schools in a teaching pack with ideas on how to use it as part of sex education lessons.

Liz Dean, sexual health promotion adviser for Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust, said: "Christmas is a time for having fun but it is vital that young people have fun safely.

"They need to know the risks associated with unprotected sex such as how it can spread sexually transmitted infections and cause unplanned pregnancy.

"They also need to be equipped with the skills to feel confident in using condoms to protect themselves and their partner and be able to say no to sex if they do not feel ready.

"The NHS offers a range of services for anyone who needs advice or emergency contraception and these will be available throughout the Christmas period."

Research shows one in seven young people has unsafe sex after drinking alcohol and one in ten had drunk so much they were unable to remember if they had had sex or not.

This increases the risk of sexually transmitted infections or unwanted pregnancies.

Although the number of teenage pregnancies has fallen by four per cent in the last six years in Brighton and Hove the city is still in the top five in the South East at 46.1 per 1,000 girls under 18.

Studies have shown strong links between alcohol consumption and unsafe sexual behaviour among young people. A third of 15 to 19-year-old girls and more than a quarter of boys regretted having sex that happened when they had been drinking.

More information is available from the sexual health helpline on 0800 567123, Sexwise for young people under 18 on 0800 28 29 30, the contraceptive education service on 0845 3101334 or on www.playingsafely.co.uk and www.ruthinking.co.uk