An epidemic that, say critics of national policies, is being swept under the carpet. One person in every 200 today attends a venereal disease clinic. VD has become the second highest notifiable disease after measles. More alarming is the spread of the disease among the young - girls of 15-21 and boys from 19-24. Figures for gonorrhoea alone are 14 times higher among the under-25s than among the over-25s. Some people are beginning to ask - is this epidemic the price of the permissive society? Jeremy James and a Man Alive film team have talked to patients and doctors at the clinics to discover how an undermanned and outdated part of the National Health Service is coping with the situation. In the studio parents, youngsters, doctors and patients, as well as health educationalists, discuss what needs to be done.