December 07, 2007
China launches first major safe sex TV campaign
BEIJING (Reuters) - China rolled out its first major television campaign on Thursday to promote condom use to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, now mostly being transmitted by sex in the world's most populous country.
The short public service announcements will mainly be shown on screens in buses, trains and planes, on the Internet, in entertainment venues, and on some state television channels.
They will target the young and China's huge floating population of migrant workers, using celebrities including Hong Kong action film star Jackie Chan and Chinese folk singer Peng Liyuan, wife of rising political star Xi Jinping.
"It marks a new era in talking frankly and candidly about these issues, which used to be avoided," said UNDP country director Subinay Nandy.
"This initiative is very timely and is very valid for the epidemic situation in China today,"he told a news conference.
China will have an estimated 50,000 new HIV infections in 2007, compared with 70,000 in 2005, according to a report by the State Council (Cabinet) and the United Nations last week.
That means the country will have about 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS this year, up from an earlier estimate of 650,000.
The new education push is designed to slow that growth further.
The ads, created by Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon, who won a 2007 Oscar for a documentary about AIDS in China, show the stars meeting or watching young people in a variety of situations, and saying: "Life is too good, please protect yourself."
A message flashes up saying that sex is now the main route of infection in China and the young are particularly vulnerable, adding: "Using condoms can reduce the risk of contracting AIDS."
While the ad may appear timid compared to ones used elsewhere in the world, Chinese actor Pu Cunxin said it marked a breakthrough that sex was now able to be discussed publicly.
"That this appears on television is a very big advance," he said. "But the question of sex and condoms is still taboo. Sex is not bad. It's something that should be talked about."
An attempt in 1999 to promote condom use on television was pulled almost at once for breaking a legal ban on condom advertisements, on the grounds they might promote promiscuity.
Other attempts have similarly foundered.
Condom use in China among vulnerable groups such as prostitutes and men who have sex with men remains low.
While the government no longer views AIDS as a shameful disease imported from the decadent West, and has taken a more proactive approach, problems such as ignorance about transmission and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS remain.
Posted by ronnie at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
October 06, 2006
Sexually transmitted diseases on rise among Singapore's teens
SINGAPORE (AFP) - Sexually transmitted diseases including HIV infections are on the rise among Singaporean teenagers as a result of promiscuity and disregard for safe-sex practices.
Official figures showed that patients seeking medical help for sexually-transmitted infections in the 10-19 year age bracket more than doubled to 678 in 2005 from 256 in 2001, the Straits Times reported Saturday.
The age group's share of all such infections rose from 3.8 per cent in 2001 to 6.1 per cent last year, with more of them becoming infected with the HIV virus that often leads to full-blown AIDS.
Between 1985 and 2004, 18 teens were diagnosed as HIV-positive - about one new case every year.
Last year alone, four boys aged between 17 and 19 tested positive for HIV after having sex with men.
The report said counsellors who work with teens report they are now sexually active at a younger age and more are having unprotected sex with multiple partners, but there was also greater awareness of the need for testing.
Theresa Soon, assistant manager of a clinic run by the Department of Sexually-Transmitted Infections Control, told the daily that teens who showed up at the clinic have had an average of four sex partners.
Singapore has about 4.3 million people, a fifth of them foreigners.
Officials have expressed alarm over the growth of HIV infections but the government has rejected widespread promotion of condom use and instead partly blamed the problem on the gay community.
Posted by ronnie at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2006
India delivers safe sex message with morning papers
HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - News, comment, cricket scores -- and contraception.
Faced with the alarming spread of HIV/AIDS, officials in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday taped a pack of three condoms to the front page of thousands of newspapers delivered to people in 50 villages and four towns in a bid to spread a message of safe sex.
"Earlier we distributed condoms at wine shops and bars, through milk vendors and at pan (tobacco) shops but we met with lukewarm response," says Ashok Kumar, the director of Andhra Pradesh State for AIDS Control Society.
A recent study by the National Aids Control Organization indicated a 25 to 28 percent increase in the number of HIV infections in Andhra, making it the worst affected state in the country, with nearly one million known cases in 2005.
The latest attempt to rein in HIV was centered on Nizamabad town, 170 km (105 miles) northeast of Hyderabad, the state capital.
Thirty-nine million people are infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and the United Nations' AIDS body says 5.7 million people are living with the virus in India. Activists say the true figure may be far higher.
Conservative attitudes to sex and contraception, a lack of awareness and discrimination all make it hard to tackle the virus in India, especially in rural areas.
Posted by ronnie at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2006
Wis. Governor Signs Abstinence Bill
MADISON, Wis. - Sex education teachers must present abstinence as the preferred behavior for unmarried people under a bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Jim Doyle.
The legislation means teachers must emphasize that refraining from sex before marriage is the most effective way to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. A spokesman for the governor, a Democrat, said most Wisconsin school districts already take that approach.
"The governor thinks that abstinence should be an important part of the message that kids hear from adults as part of their classes," spokesman Dan Leistikow said.
Republican Sen. Mary Lazich, a bill's sponsor, said sex education teachers can still teach about birth control, but must emphasize that abstinence is the only 100 percent effective method to avoid health risks.
Kelda Helen Roys, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, called the bill, which takes effect July 1, shortsighted.
"They ignored the overwhelming public testimony, support and expert information about the importance of comprehensive sex education that talks about abstinence as well as contraceptive use," she said. "Abstinence is an important part but it is not the only part."
The birth rate among Wisconsin teens ages 15-19 decreased by 27 percent between 1993 and 2004, from 41 to 30 births per 1,000 females, according to the most recent government survey.
But the overall infection rate of the four top sexually transmitted diseases increased by 3 percent among teens during that time.
Posted by ronnie at 09:21 PM | Comments (0)