Image from The Nation Thailand/ANN
BANGKOK (The Nation Thailand/ANN): With a jump in HIV and STD transmission, health experts are calling for teens to strictly follow safe-sex practices or abstain from sex.
Senior public health officials are singing in chorus, encouraging teenagers to use condoms if they can’t resist the urge and to get tested.
An unidentified teenage girl recently disclosed that she intentionally spread HIV to her one-night-stand partners. The girl recently posted on her Facebook wall that she was born with HIV. After having her heart broken, she slept with strangers in a seven-month series of one-night stands without protection.
The disclosure has prompted the Disease Control Department (DCD) to share shocking figures about rising rates of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among young people.
On Monday, the DCD announced there were about 9,230 new HIV cases last year and almost half of them were among youth and young adults between 15 and 24 years of age.
While the new HIV transmission rate was higher than in recent years, the DCD calculated that only 22.4 per cent of those with HIV sought hospital treament. That rate had increased from 2008, when only 9.5 per cent of people with HIV sought hospital treatment, said DCD acting director-general Thongchai Keeratihuttayakorn.
The DCD also found that 14,534 people contracted syphilis and gonorrhea last year, Thongchai added. Thongchai said the DCD found that only 80 per cent of youths last year used condoms, which was the same rate as in 2019.
The DCD has been working with other government and private organisations to convince teenagers to protect themselves with condoms every time they have sex to prevent HIV transmission and unwanted pregnancy among teenage girls.
Teens and the general people can obtain condoms free of charge from public clinics and hospitals as well as non-governmental health organisations.
Thongchai said the DCD has also joined hands with youth networks to create understanding among teenagers of the need to protect themselves with condom use.
Campaigns have also been launched for teenagers to self-test for HIV. They can get HIV rapid test kits from public clinics and hospitals around the country.
Meanwhile, Atchara Nithiapinyasakul, acting director-general of the Health Department, said the alarming rates of HIV and STDs transmission among youths prompted her department to launch campaigns for youths to protect themselves with “four safe” methods. They are:
- Safe virgin – Teenagers are encouraged to wait until they are sure they can take responsibility for their lives before having sex.
- Safe sex – Teenagers are encouraged to use condoms.
- Safe abortion – When teenagers have unwanted pregnancies, they are urged to seek advice from government clinics instead of using services from illegal clinics.
- Safe mom – Teenagers who are pregnant and who decide to carry the pregnancy to term are encouraged to consult a gynaecologist for safe delivery.
Ekachai Piensriwatchara, deputy director-general of the Health Department, said teenagers should avoid being alone with their girlfriend or boyfriend in order to prevent the urge to have sex.
He said girls should say no to demands for sex by their boyfriends and should ask them whether they could handle the implications of a pregnancy. - The Straits Times/ANN
