Youth safe sex message is hard to ignore

A papier mache condom would spell disaster in the bedroom, so it’s surprising to learn the unconventional contraceptive isn’t entirely useless.

Standing almost two-metres tall and sporting a subtle lean, a giant blue condom was set amongst the trees of Springwood’s Manners Park on September 19, designed to nudge teens into talking about safe sex.

Youth workers from Lower Mountains Youth Service Team (MYST) and helpers aged 12-17 crafted the imposing piece, whiling away the afternoon by pasting gooey pieces of newspaper onto a phallic wire skeleton.
The arguably risqué exercise was organised by MYST and funded by Family Planning NSW as part of Sexual Health Week (September 15-21).
“(Making the condom is) just a fun, physical activity. It takes a serious topic and generates conversation in a positive context,” said MYST youth worker Nick Margerison.
“Sex education is a big, contentious issue even in the youth work world. We don’t want to be telling young people to have sex, but if they are going to be sexually active it’s our job to give young people enough information so they know about safe sex methods and how to protect themselves.”
While Nick had expected the sight of an oversized prophylactic in Springwood’s business hub to hit a few nerves, he was ultimately taken aback by its positive reception.
“It’s been a trouble-free afternoon and a great result — everyone is having fun,” he said.
Penrith-based youth sexual health organisation, The Warehouse, was on hand during the event to provide information about sexually transmitted diseases.
This year Sexual Health Week ran under the slogan ‘Check It Out’ and focused on Chlamydia – the most common sexually transmissible infection (STI) amongst youth.
Despite the STI being easily preventable, according to Family Planning NSW figures almost 7500 people aged 15-24 were diagnosed with Chlamydia in NSW since June last year.
Symptoms rarely make themselves known, but left untreated can lead to pelvic inflammatory infection and infertility. A urinary test through a GP or youth health clinic is usually all that’s required to determine whether a person has the STI.
And for those who didn’t catch a glimpse of MYST’s colossal creation, a new and improved version could resurface next year.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever built a giant condom. It will be interesting to find out if it will be our last,” said Nick.

Kelly O's 4 safe sex tests a year

KELLY Osbourne has revealed she gets tested for sexually transmitted diseases four times a year.
The daughter of rocker Ozzy, 23, said she drunkenly had unprotected sex in the past — but even if it is unnecessary, she gets tested for her own “peace of mind”.
She also revealed mum Sharon, who survived colon cancer, fears Kelly will get the disease as she is on the Pill — or if she goes near a MICROWAVE.
She told New! mag: “Because of her history she’s convinced it causes cancer. I don’t have a microwave in my house for the same reason.”
Kelly, an ambassador for World Contraception Day, also told how she first saw a condom aged seven while on tour with her dad’s Black Sabbath band.
She said: “Mum explained what they were. It was something my parents had never been shy about.”

Botswana, PSI Distribute 60M Condoms; PSI Plans Initiative To Curb Spread Of HIV, Alcohol Abuse

The government of Botswana, along with Population Services International, has distributed almost 60 million condoms in the country during the past two years in an attempt to scale up the fight against HIV/AIDS, Mmegi reports.

Fighting The Disease: What Can Be Done

Can AIDS be stopped in Africa? The temptation, when we confront suffering on such a ghastly scale, is to assume it's beyond human control. But it's not. We know we can contain the spread of HIV, because vulnerable nations have already succeeded. Senegal has held its infection rate below 2 percent throughout the epidemic. And Uganda, once the plague's epicenter, cut its infection rate by half during the 1990s. Replicating such victories won't be easy; every community is different. A strategy that succeeds in one nation can fail in another. But researchers have learned a lot from the successes of the past two decades. Here are some prescriptions for slowing the devastation.
Break the silence. The first challenge is simply to face reality. Until recently, few African leaders acknowledged that AIDS was a problem. The disease still carries a strong stigma, but the official silence is breaking. The presidents of Zimbabwe and Kenya are now calling AIDS an urgent problem. Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland have all announced new anti-AIDS initiatives in the past year. And many governments are teaming up with corporations and community groups to raise public awareness.
Promote safer sex. The greater challenge is to change the behavior that spreads the disease. If people lacked only information, a good leaflet might end the epidemic. The trouble is that no one, rich or poor, makes health choices on the basis of information alone. If everyone in your community lives on junk food, chances are you'll live on it too--no matter how much you read about obesity and heart disease. And if prostitution is your livelihood--or the sole source of intimacy in your mineworkers' dormitory--you learn to live with the risk. The most successful prevention efforts have aimed not just to inform people but to change social norms. In Uganda, for example, health workers turned "Protector" condoms into must-have fashion accessories, simply by introducing a flashy new package and a marketing slogan ("So Strong. So Smooth"). To keep the brand hot, the promoters launched a safe-sex radio show and even a traveling theater production.

Education to tackle teen pregnancies

HEALTH chiefs are poised to target the Cumbrian schools with the highest teen pregnancy rates in a push to educate young people.

The county’s public health boss wants to encourage a new culture where children talk openly about sex from a very young age and parents are no longer prudish or embarrassed.
Prof John Ashton also wants to see dedicated teen health centres being set up across the county, including one at the city academy planned for Carlisle.
Although they have started to drop, teenage pregnancy rates in the city are still higher than the national average.
For example between 2004 and 2006, 48 of every 1,000 15 to 17-year-olds in Carlisle were pregnant.
Nationally the figure was 41 out of 1,000.
The picture in Barrow and west Cumbria is similar, with lower rates in parts of Eden and South Lakeland.
In the next few months Cumbria Primary Care Trust (PCT) will join with health bosses in Lancashire to launch a debate about sex and young people in a bid to address problems such as teenage pregnancy.
Prof Ashton, county public health director, believes education is the key – this being in schools from a young age, in the wider community and at home.
“We need to give young people more support. To do this I would like to see more school-based clinics, teenage health centres and school nurses.
“For example I’d like to see the new academy in Carlisle have a teenage health centre and perhaps one in the grounds of the university that’s open to teenagers.

£3m centre for sex health advice

A £3M sexual health centre opens in Manchester today aiming to provide faster, easier access to tests and treatment.The Hathersage Centre, on the corner of Hathersage Road and Upper Brook Street, will offer confidential, free care and counselling on a range of needs, including contraception, pregnancy, sexually-transmitted infections and HIV.The clinic will have a drop-in service, so most people do not need to book in advance.Health bosses in Manchester have struggled to meet targets for access to sexual health care and have come under pressure to tackle the rising number of teen pregnancies - there has been a 14 per cent increase among under-18s in the city in the last 10 years, while, nationally, it fell by 12 per cent.Neil Jenkinson, director of the Greater Manchester Sexual Health Network, said: "There has been a significant improvement in access times and facilities over the past year. "This fantastic new centre is the final piece of the jigsaw - with direct street access, just off one of the busiest bus and road routes in the city."Combines
The centre combines the Manchester Centre for Sexual Health, which had two separate bases at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and the Palatine Contraceptive and Sexual Health Services. Staff will run regular clinics for teenagers and young people and provide a telephone advice service.Services include:The diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted infections and genital conditions; HIV testing, diagnosis, counselling and treatment; All methods of contraception, including emergency contraception; Abortion information; Psychosexual counselling. More information: Contraception clinics on 0161 901 1555 or sexual health clinics 0161 276 5200.

Safer sex appeal after record level of HIV cases

A RECORD number of HIV cases have been diagnosed in Wales over the past year – the highest rate since the start of the epidemic nearly 30 years ago.
The latest NHS figures show a total of 172 new patients were confirmed with the virus – a rise over the previous year which was also a record with 154 new cases.
Doctors today confirmed that unprotected sex was by far the biggest cause of the spread and made new appeals for couples to practice safer sex by using a condom.
Despite the increase in new HIV patients, the numbers of cases leading to full blown Aids and deaths from Aids have remained static over the past decade with between five and 10 cases a year.
The main areas of transmission of the HIV virus are among homosexual men, heterosexual men who have contracted the infection from holidays or business trips to South East Asia or Africa and those who have emigrated to the UK from the same regions.
Over the years, a total of 1,446 cases of HIV have been diagnosed in Wales.
One of the most high profile cases was that of Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the rock group Queen, who died in 1991, aged 45.
Dr Mary Browning, a consultant in genito-urinary medicine for the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, said one of the reasons for the increase in cases was also a greater awareness of the treatments which were more widely available today.
“These treatments are very successful and much less frightening

Too many infected teens

In a first-ever analysis, 25 percent of all teenage girls in the U.S. and nearly half of African-American girls ages 14 to 19 were found to have a sexually transmitted disease. Those alarming rates suggest that admonitions to teenagers about safe sex are falling on deaf ears and that when it comes to infectious diseases, a lot more effort must be put into education, screening and prevention.
Some experts familiar with high levels of sexual activity among teenagers as well as young women's greater vulnerability to STDs weren't surprised by the results. But researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who managed the survey in 2003-2004 were troubled that an estimated 3.2 million teen girls have had at least one of four common STDs, including chlamydia and human papillomavirus (HPV). It's also disturbing that many of the young women may have been unaware of their condition or the likelihood of transmitting it to their partners.
The findings make it clear that abstinence-only curriculums funded by the Bush administration are simply not relevant to large numbers of sexually active teens. However, it would help to make a new vaccine against HPV more accessible to young women who are at risk of suffering the worst consequences of infectious diseases, such as infertility and cervical cancer.

BBC releases ad to remove condom shyness

New Delhi: Real men use condoms. That’s the message BBC's latest campaign aims to impart. But how comfortable are we talking about the ‘C’ word in this day and age?
As part of its ‘Jo Bole Wohi Sikandar’ campaign, BBC has released an advertisement in five different languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telgu, Kanada and Marathi. The message is simple: real men use condoms.
"Aim of the campaign to get real men to talk about condoms and remove the negativity attached of the word itself," Creative Director, BBC World Service Trust, Radharani Mitra says.
Condom use is till date the most effective preventive measure for sexually transmitted diseases. It's a message that needs to be reinforced.
According to the latest estimates by the National AIDS Control Organization, around 2.5 million people in India are estimated to be living with HIV.
Andhra Pradesh tops the list with 1.06 per cent of its population infected with HIV. It is followed by Maharashtra at 0.75 per cent and Karnataka at 0.81 per cent.
And yet, despite all the statistics, as a society we are still queasy talking about sex.
BBC’s campaign aims to remove the stigma attached to the word condom itself. There is a need for this message to reach each and every one of us. Use condoms and have safe sex.

Classroom drama and discussion teach young people about HIV in Mozambique

MAPUTO, Mozambique, 28 February 2008 – Every week, activists from Kindlimuka, an association of people living with HIV, visit primary schools in Maputo to discuss with students the ways they can protect themselves against HIV.
Through lively debates and discussions, children learn the life skills they need to make informed choices. The UNICEF-assisted HIV Prevention School Programme also includes interactive theatre work that enables children to identify and avoid various risk situations.
And the need for prevention is clear: It is estimated that almost 11 per cent of Mozambican females between 15 and 24 years of age, and nearly 4 per cent of males in the same age group, are living with HIV.
Preventing risky behaviour
Today, the fifth- and sixth-grade students at 7 de Setembro Primary School return to their classroom after the morning break to wait for a 28-year-old Kindlimuka activist, Francisco Magaia, to arrive.

CHAD: Young people desperately seeking sex education

Some of the young people who seek help at the Youth Information and Orientation Centre for Reproductive Health (CIOJ) in N'Djamena, capital of Chad, do not understand how they became pregnant or contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Workers at the centre blame the high levels of ignorance on the failure of parents to talk to their children about sex. CIOJ was set up by a local non-governmental family welfare organisation, the Chadian Association for Family Well-Being (ASTBEF), to provide young people with a user-friendly family planning, STI and HIV service. The centre is supported by several international partners, including United Nations agencies and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), of which it is a member. Although principally aimed at youth between the ages of 15 and 24, boys and girls as young as 10 come to the centre in search of information and treatment. "At nine or 10 some young people have already had sexual relations, girls in particular," said Hassane Haoua, a project coordinator at ASTBEF. "Pregnancies at this age are rare but there are young mums in the 14-to-15 age group." In the first half of 2007, the centre, located in a working-class area of N'Djamena, saw more than 3,000 young clients, most of them girls. Young Chadians tend to have a very poor knowledge of sexual matters. "They often know how to protect themselves against HIV, and what puts them at risk of contracting it, but some of them have never heard of contraception," said Dada Nandeh, the centre's social worker. "They don't know how to recognise the symptoms of STIs, and the girls don't know how to manage their menstrual cycles." Although abortion is illegal in Chad, and people caught performing it can face up to five years in prison, this does not prevent young girls who become pregnant from sometimes taking desperate measures to hide their condition from their parents. "The girls go and get illegal abortions and end up dying of a haemorrhage," said the centre's midwife, Célestine Dagaïe.

New sexual health clinic launched for young people in Coventry

On February 28 sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and the New Deal for Communities programme (NDC) are holding a launch event for a new young people’s sexual health clinic in Coventry. The event will be held at Henley Green Community Centre on February 28 from 4 -7pm.

The clinic, aimed at under 25s, will test and treat young people for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and will offer contraception services. The service will run in the community centre every Thursday from 3-6pm and will also offer information and advice on STIs, contraception and managing relationships.
The tests offered at the new clinic include chlamydia, gonorrhoea, syphilis, hepatitis B and HIV. Pregnancy tests will be available along with a range of contraception including condoms, the pill and injections. Emergency contraception will also be available.
Kate Soanes, Senior Health Practitioner at Terrence Higgins Trust in Coventry said “We’re working to make our services quick, convenient and located right where they’re needed. Easy access to contraception is essential and young people are at particularly high risk of STIs so it made sense to design our service with them in mind. We hope people will come along to the launch event to find out more about the services the clinic will have on offer.”

Condom use increases during Ghana 2008

Patronage of condoms in parts of Accra has increased significantly as the euphoria of the 26th Africa Cup of Nations (Ghana 2008) heightens.Enquiries made by the Daily Graphic indicate that about 1.5 million free condoms have so far been distributed by the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC), while sale of the product at some commercial outlets has also shot up. The shopping mart at the La Beach Shell Filling Station, opposite the twin plush Labadi Beach and La Palm Royal Beach hotels, is making good business as sale of the product has increased since last week. The price of condoms at the shop ranges from GH¢1.50p to GH¢4 and according to the salesgirls, the high patronage is mostly at night. The story at Megapharm, a pharmaceutical shop in Osu, is however, different as the sale of condoms goes "one by one", according to sales attendants. The GAC intends to distribute five million condoms during the three-week Ghana 2008 tournament, targeting hotels, including those hosting the national teams, restaurants, entertainment centres, "hot spots" and any place in the country where Ghana 2008 activities are centred.

Free condoms for Carnival guaranteed by Brazil government

Brasilia - Brazilian Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao guaranteed Wednesday that there will be enough free condoms for anyone needing them during Carnival festivities across the country. "We have distributed 20 million condoms for this Carnival. We are going to distribute 600 million male condoms throughout this year," the minister said in a press conference.
Gomes Temporao was responding to recent criticism from NGOs which claimed there would not be enough condoms for the popular celebrations planned for Saturday through Tuesday.
Some organizations complained that in Salvador, in the north- eastern state of Bahia, homosexuals had been excluded from the free handout of contraceptives.
"Everyone can stay calm, because condoms will be available not only for the Carnival, but throughout the year," the minister countered.

Terrence Higgins Trust to give grants to young people to create sex & relationship education projects

Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) Young Leaders Project is inviting groups of young people to apply for small grants to create and deliver their own sex and relationship education projects. The grants are to educate their friends and the wider community on issues relating to sexually transmitted infections, sexual health and HIV.
THT is looking for 13-19 year olds in London, Eastern England, the South East, the South West, the West Midlands, the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside to get involved. Each area has a board of twelve young people who work on the grant giving scheme and will allocate the funds for sex and relationship education (SRE) projects. The aim is for young people to educate their peers so all the projects funded will be created and run by other teenagers.
Gareth Davies, Young Leaders Project Manager at Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) said: “We are inviting young people to come up with innovative and creative ideas about how to educate their friends. If we like your idea then we’ll give you some money to put it into practice. All you need to do is get together with your youth club, school or other organisation to develop the idea and make an application.”
Gareth adds: “The UK has the worst sexual health in Western Europe so the Young Leaders project which is run by young people, for young people, aims to make a real difference. This is a chance for young people to shape the way their peers learn about sex and relationships, which is a major part of everyone's life. If you’re interested in getting involved, please download an application pack and find out what it’s all about!"The sex and relationships education (known as SRE) projects can involve any or all of the following issues:
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)• Your rights in a relationship• Contraception• Sexuality• Safer sex and risk taking• The media influence on sex and relationships• Managing emotional relationships• HIV infection